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THE DSPCA HAS urged the public not to purchase ducklings after it emerged they are being offered on the streets of Dublin for as little as €5.
The DSPCA has so far taken in 25 of the young ducklings in the last 24 hours. The charity has received reports teenagers are being offered the animals for sale by “opportunistic sellers”.
Gillian Bird, head of education for the charity, told The Journal that both wild and farmyard ducklings are being sold. Some sellers are “literally scooping these ducklings from the water and selling them on”, Bird said.
She urged parents and teenagers to not be drawn in by this and to say no if they are approached on the streets and asked to buy a duckling.
“Reports started coming in yesterday evening and then much more this morning. We’ve been told people are being stopped in the street and asked if they want to buy a little duckling. We have 25 coming into us so far.
“We have also been told of young teenagers coming home with the duckling having been approached by strangers,” Bird said.
She added that there is “some talk” that the interest in ducklings has been sparked by a TikTok trend.
Bird explained that these wild ducklings will not survive unless rehabilitated as it won’t know how to survive if and when it is released back into the wild.
“You can see that people might think, ‘ok, we can release it back into the wild when it’s an adult’ but the thing is that these ducks won’t survive because they have been scooped out of a canal and sold and haven’t had enough time to learn how to get food.”
Another issue for the DSPCA is that the animals are being sold singly and not in groups. This poses a problem for the animals as they are “very social”.
“Normally they have their nestmates, their siblings there with them. It is not a wise idea to separate them.
“The message from us is to steer clear of these animals and say no to anyone who approaches you,” Bird added.
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Children’s hospitals still only allowing one parent to all appointments is also an issue which needs to be raised.
Disgraceful nonsense!
Without the man in the first place there’d be no baby. Yet the man is treated as if he’s a pariah and given the ‘my body, I choose’ brigade, is in many cases seen as a hindrance to the future development of the child.
@AnthonyK: what exactly has the clear threat that women’s rights has posed to your small ego got to do with allowing men back into all antenatal appointements? Which is the clear point of the article, which you seem to have missed.
@AnthonyK: I really don’t see the relevance of this in relation to maternity hospital protocols. This is just your daily rant.
@Aoife Hurson: Exactly. Just having his daily rant against women.
@Aoife Hurson: What is a woman?
@Aoife Hurson: because like everything men are classes and second class citizens when it comes to kids.
Slightly off topic but our GP refuses to allow my mother to attend with my father (who is hard of hearing) for appointments. He’s a good doctor otherwise but it seems bizarre, he even has to go in person to get blood results as he can’t hear on the phone but they won’t tell my mother the results instead.
The civil service out of control forgetting they are the servants and the people their employer…
@William slevin: not the Civil Service – it’s up to the individual hospitals to take decisions here.
Those involved in the decisions would likely be medical personnel and administrative management. Employees of the HSE would be Public Servants rather than Civil Servants. Civil Servants are usually to be found roaming the corridors of Government Departments and terrorizing Ministers and their advisors.
To best honest, the hospital in Ireland are a total disgrace, they look like soviet hospitals from the 60’ specially the maternity hospital.
No equipment, no beds, food worse than prison.
@Yvon Queguiner: ahh now come on. Have you tasted prison food here?
More archaic madness. This one has a whiff of turf off it.
At least the baby gets a chance.
If women stopped going for their appointments THEN things will change!
@Marie B: Why can’t they just go on their own? I don’t understand all this furore over it
@Anna Carr: why should they?
Put the man back where he was happyest, across the road a pint and cigar.
@Fiona O’ Dwyer: You sound like a happy,well adjusted feminist Fiona,just like all the rest…
@Spud Geshletter: haha. I agree, they just get in the way lol ;)
The problem is that the people who are running the hospital have forgotten that it belongs to the patient and the closest family. They don’t want us to see them in case we see too much. They like to hide their incompetence, mistakes and of course negligence. That is the real reason I know as I lived 3 months in the hospital and Oo my, did I saw things. So unless we say enough is enough nothing is going to change
@Anne Brusher Collins – when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser
@Aoif3 Hurson – my ego is quite large
Comments closed, comments closed, comments closed…
Why does The Journal have comments at all?
@Siobhan O’Sullivan Morrin:”@William slevin: not the Civil Service – it’s up to the individual hospitals to take decisions here.
Those involved in the decisions would likely be medical personnel and administrative management. Employees of the HSE would be Public Servants rather than Civil Servants. Civil Servants are usually to be found roaming the corridors of Government Departments and terrorizing Ministers and their advisors.”
A servant is a servant what ever title is appended to it…the servants have forgotten what they are servants to the people…
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