Police searching for those responsible for shooting duck with arrow, beating another to death
AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - Austin police are searching for the person or people responsible for beating one duck to death and shooting another duck with an arrow at the Arboretum pond located in Northwest Austin.
Austin resident Tracey Su, told FOX 7 she routinely visits the duck pond and discovered the ducks Wednesday morning.
Su says she “noticed the arrow duck not with [his] usual social group and with blood on his throat and then the arrow.”
Su says she went to her car to get a carrier, when she noticed the ducks brother who is “usually near him,” was missing.
Su found the duck “two picnic areas away, under a tree with open wounds, a bloody log nearby and blood on the grass.”
Police say animal control responded to the pond, located on the grounds of the popular shopping center, Wednesday morning, for a call about the ducks.
When animal control arrived, they found that one duck had been beaten to death, and the other had been shot with an arrow.
Animal control removed the arrow from the duck, and transported it to the Austin Wildlife Center’s intake facility located off of Martin Luther King Boulevard in Austin.
The duck was then transferred to the Animal Wildlife Center’s “Corgan Center,” near Elgin, in Bastrop County. The Corgan Center takes in more than 7,000 animals a year and is typically reserved for long-term rehab situations.
Kathryn Mattison, an animal care technician at the center described the ducks injuries.
“...the arrow was through his lower abdomen, through his upper left wing and it had kind of cut his upper left cheek a little bit.” she explained.
Mattison says veterinarians at the center flushed out the ducks wounds, and sutured them shut. She says the arrow was a target arrow.
“...definitely something that someone would have in their backyard for target practice. It was a clean wound it just went straight in and out.”
Mattison says that “clean wound,” was the ducks saving grace. The arrow did not hit any major organs. He is currently swollen, but is expected to be fine. She says he is in “good spirits.”
“We’re definitely gonna be able to rehabilitate him and release him back in the wild. Back in the same location he was, only because that’s where he might likely have a nest.” she said.
A detective from the Austin Police Departments Animal Cruelty Unit is investigating.
Police say there are currently no suspects in the case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the department.