BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Mary Beth Artz will rise at the crack of dawn Wednesday morning, grab her waders and head toward Kissena Park for a rescue mission. Her targets are three dumped ducks who probably won't live long without her help.

Artz, an actress and wildlife rehabilitator from Brooklyn, is one of about a dozen rescuers who find, feed, capture and care for domestic ducks abandoned in New York City parks by people who don't realize how unlikely they are to live, she said. "They can't survive out there," said Artz. "It's frustrating. There have been so many dumped ducks."

Artz and her volunteer network of dumped duck rescuers have spent the past six years working to address the growing problem of abandonment that begins in primary school science labs across New York City. "The ducks are going to the slaughter," said Artz. "They're not going to live happily ever after on a farm."



Chick-hatching projects — commonly used to teach students about the life cycle of living creatures — might be fun for the kids in the classroom, but are oftentimes fatal for the ducks, according to Artz and recently proposed ban from Assembly member Linda Rosenthal. Rosenthal's bill and Artz both argue that teachers are ill-equipped to provide the care hatching ducks need.

Faulty incubators are often left locked up over the weekend and with heat lamps shut off. Some ducklings die in their shells while others are born with deformities and alone, without anyone to feed them during the first two days of their lives.

"While schools believe the projects will help students learn about biology, what they actually get is a lesson in cruelty," said Rosenthal. "There are many more humane ways to teach young people about an animal's lifecycle, and ones that don't usually involve the animals death."



"We're just teaching everyone animals are just disposable," added Artz. "We really want to get the word out that these hatching projects are not humane." Ducks that do survive the hatching project face yet another problem: It's illegal in New York City to keep a duck as a pet so no one can provide them a home. Ducks also don't make great pets, as Artz points out, because "they poop every three seconds."

