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Quick-thinking animal lovers saved a duckling being mistreated by a drunk man by trading the terrified animal for a cigarette.

The man barged into the Extra Care charity shop in Market Street, Loughborough at 10am today where Rachel Wade, of Shepshed, was donating some clothes.

She said: “He was off his face and as he walked in he nearly fell onto the floor.

“He said he’d been on trains and buses all night and that he had a duck.

“He smelled strongly of alcohol and the woman working in the shop was trying to get him to leave.

“I saw the duck, which was still young – yellow and fluffy – and was obviously scared.

“It was so bizarre.

“I said to him, ‘It’s crying, why don’t I take it back to its mum’.

“But he just swore at me and told me I couldn’t have it. As he left the shop and wandered along the road I started calling the police and that’s when he started to swing the baby duck.

(Image: Google)

“I had been wary to approach him before but after that I sprinted over him, desperate to get it off him. A guy from Iceland also came out and lots of people were there trying to help.

“I wanted to get him to give it to me but he kept just saying, ‘no, it’s mine’ and shaking it.

“He kept swinging the duck around and put it in his bag.

“He obviously wasn’t well – he clearly had problems – but he was being cruel.”

As more people began urging him to hand over the duck the man became more aggressive, Rachel said.

Eventually his demands for a cigarette led to him releasing the duck.

Rachel said: “He said, ‘If you give me a fag I’ll give you the duck’ and a girl who was smoking handed him one and he dropped it.

“I picked it up and me and the girl who’d given him the cigarette took it to the pond in the park.

“Within minutes there were about four police cars.”

Rachel, 31, who teaches at Loughborough College, carried the frightened bird to the water at Queen’s Park but she was unable to find it’s family.

She said: “When I took the duck back to the water it was still in shock, I think. As we put it down it started to cry out for its mum.

“I was hoping to find its mother but I couldn’t see any others. It wandered off and I hope it’s okay. It was a beautiful little duck.

“It could have been from anywhere. The man said he’d been on trains and buses but I don’t think it could have come from outside Loughborough – I don’t think it would have lasted that long with him.”

She said that the incident had boosted her faith in people.

“Lots of people in Loughborough town centre came to try to help,” she said.

“At least there are people who genuinely do care and that’s what it should be like.”

Leicestershire Police confirmed that a man had been arrested and charged following the incident.

A police spokesman said: “At about 10.10am today we had a call to Ashby Road in Loughborough about concern over the treatment of a duck.

“Officers attended and a male was arrested.”