SPOKANE- City of Spokane Parks and Recreation has seen domestic animals being left in City parks. The most common domestic animals found include goldfish, bunnies, turtles, frogs and ducks.
While walking through Manito Park Monday, Mackenzie Adkins recognized four ducks in Mirror Pond as domestic drake ducks.
Adkins owns and enjoys reading about ducks.
“I was here [Manito Park] with my niece on Monday afternoon and when we were leaving the park we noticed them…. and I recognized them as domestic ducks because their actually the same kind I have at home. They’re ‘Runner Ducks’,” Adkins said.
Parks and Rec. confirmed with NonStop Local that they were domestic ducks.
Two of the four ducks were rescued and re-homed by Parks and Rec. However, two more are still in Mirror Pond.
Domestic animals do not fare well in a wild environment.
“They’re domestic animals… they’re pets and they shouldn’t be in that environment. So, they’re in situations where they can’t necessarily survive. And it’s also harmful to the ecosystem of the area, of the park, because it can impact both native vegetation and other native wildlife,” Angel Spell, the Assistant Director of Natural Resources for City of Spokane Parks and Recreation, said.
The department is increasing efforts to safely capture and re-home the remaining two ducks.
“These other two ducks have been a little more… careful about coming up to us and being captured. So, we’re still working on it,” Spell said.
Spell added that the department is not seeking volunteer support to capture domestic animals found in parks at this time.
The department requests that if members of the public find domesticated animals in the City parks that they contact local animal protection services.
“I wonder if having more of a public education campaign might help. People might not realize just how damaging it can be both to the animals themselves and the local ecosystems,” Adkins said.
