PAWS Wild Again: The Welcoming Party

November 20, 2008

On August 28, at Silver Lake Park in Everett, a child threw a rock at a female Mallard. Kevin Mack, PAWS Wildlife Naturalist, knows nothing of the child's motivation, history, or background.He has no idea if, as is often the case, the child was behaving cruelly toward animals because he had experienced cruelty in his own life. Kevin's sincere hope is that the child didn't really mean to hurt the Mallard; that he was just acting on a naïve, youthful impulse. He also hopes that the child felt a measure of guilt--strong enough to prevent him from behaving similarly in the future--when the rock connected with the duck's head and sent her sprawling.

Whether the boy was motivated by malice or simply failed to consider the consequences of his actions, the end result was the same. The Mallard suffered a severe brain injury from which she would not quickly recover. After witnessing the attack, a concerned citizen scooped the bird up and brought her to PAWS. 

It took more than two months for the Mallard to heal to the point where she stood a good chance of surviving in the wild. At the end of her time at PAWS she was able to walk, run and fly once again, all of which were amazing considering the severity of the head injuries she had experienced

Read more about this Mallard and her journey back to health, thanks to the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (Lynnwood, Washington 98046 ).