CHEK Upside: Saanich community comes together to save duck

Saanich resident Mack Kurtz was walking his dog Charlie along Bowker Creek when something caught the Lab’s eye.

“Down there, there was a duck and she had her beak wide open and had, what looked to me, like a plastic ring of some type, like a clear plastic, caught in her beak and wrapped around her head,” says Kurtz.

Kurtz tried to corral the duck by himself to no avail so, with the help of some friends, he appealed to his neighbours on social media for help.

“A dozen people showed up to help us get this thing and save it and pretty amazing that it hit so many people in the heart all at the same time, all different walks of life,” says Kurtz.

Finally, Kurtz and Bowker Creek resident Deanne Sharp, who raises backyard ducks, managed to wrap the animal in a blanket and cut off the plastic.

“It was a really good feeling, totally worth it,” says Kurtz.

“To go after the duck for so long and to finally be able to get it was a pretty good feeling cause we knew she would just starve if we didn’t get to her,” adds Kurtz.

A thorough clean-up of the creek followed, yielding a large collection of trash.

Kurtz hopes the incident reminds residents around the creek to pick up after themselves and monitor their recycling bins.

“For something like this to happen so local and so close to home it does pull at the heartstrings a little bit and definitely as a community and as a neighbourhood we need to pick up our bootstraps and take care of our own recycling,” says Kurtz.

“It was good to have a happy ending out of it,” adds Kurtz.

Editorial Policies Report an Error