Ducks and Geese
Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary photo by Derek Goodwin.
Ducks are active, inquisitive animals who form lifelong friendships and express fondness and loyalty. They are highly social birds who feel most at ease when they’re in larger groups of other ducks, who are called paddlings. Ducks spend their days looking for food in the grass or in shallow water, and they sleep together with their paddlings at night. Geese mate for life and are very protective of their partners and offspring. When a goose’s mate is killed, the remaining goose will mourn in seclusion. Some geese who lose their mates spend the rest of their lives as widows or widowers, refusing to mate again. If they are flying and a goose is shot, some of the geese will lag behind to stay with their injured friend. (2)
The lives of ducks and geese revolve around water. Their health, resilience and emotional well-being are fully dependent on having access to water where they can forage for food, bathe, explore, mate, and raise their offspring. But on commercial farms, these sensitive birds are deprived of their most important environmental needs, with no access to water for swimming or immersion. This deprivation is just one of many cruelties they suffer when they are raised and killed for food. Nearly 25 million ducks were killed for meat in the U.S. in 2011, and another 500,000 ducks and geese were tortured and killed to make foie gras. Many of these birds, along with ducks and geese farmed primarily for their down, were subjected to the excruciating practice of live-plucking of their feathers. Please read more about the plight of these birds at our Learn page: Ducks and Geese: Meat, Foie Gras, and Down.
MEET THE WOODSTOCK DUCKS AND GEESE!
