Villagers blame migrants for missing ducks

You read that right – the resident birds, which are all Aylesbury-type ducks, recently began disappearing from a feeding area that was specially-built to allow children to feed them.

‘DUCKS ON EARITH VILLAGE POND ARE BEING TAKEN AND IT’S NOT BY MR. FOX. FOUR DUCKS HAVE BEEN REMOVED WITHIN THE LAST WEEK. PLEASE KEEP A LOOK OUT,’ it reads.

It turns out Ms Lambert has a theory – although she says she doesn’t want to ‘point the finger’. Earith lies in an agricultural area where many migrant workers are employed in the fields.

‘All I know is in different cultures the idea of capturing and eating wild fowl is quite normal,’ she said.

‘I suspect they have been taken for the pot, but their meat would be quite tough as they are all elderly.’

Parish councillor Ron Hodge agrees:

‘The thought is that it’s migrant workers who are taking them so they can eat them, but there’s just no way to prove it,’ he said.

‘There are a lot of agricultural workers around here. No one else would bother to steal ducks to eat,’ said a third villager, who asked not to be named.

‘The likelihood is they’re migrant workers, probably eastern Europeans, as they’re the people who do most of the field work.’

‘All I know is in different cultures the idea of capturing and eating wild fowl is quite normal,’ she said.

‘I suspect they have been taken for the pot, but their meat would be quite tough as they are all elderly.’

Parish councillor Hazel Lambert, who says she fed the ducks every day, has put up posters around the village warning of the thefts.