Quotes from the Investigator’s Diary

“As we were walking down the aisle there was one duck whose beak was stuck in between the cage and the water trough. J pulled on the duck’s head to release him, whereupon the duck then shook his head from side to side and blood sprayed from his beak.”

“I point out a duck with a huge infected beak to O who tells me that he has seen much bigger, which amazed me because the abscess is as big as a hockey puck. He tells me that it is not uncommon to see some infected beaks with abscesses bigger than a tennis ball.  He also tells me that he often pops these abscesses with his hunting knife for fun.”

“I notice a duck that has vomited up a large quantity of blood soaked food. The red stained corn mix is everywhere – all over the cage, on the ground on neighboring ducks and in the water trough.  I show H and he tells me the duck was damaged inside as a result of feeding and that he will die in a little bit. He also tells me that often the ones with infected beaks end up dying also.”

“When I arrive, I see that there is a duck hanging in the shed with a huge gash in his wing and a cut throat that is still dripping blood.  O explained to me that I just missed him killing the duck and the reason he killed him was because the duck’s wing was stuck in the cage and it was almost severed in half. He told me that when he sliced the neck the duck would not stop flailing and lifting his head so he punched the duck in the head a few times but could not hit him hard enough to knock him out, so he grabbed a hammer and bashed him on the head.”

“The escaped ducks were hard to catch and O was becoming very agitated. I saw him kick ducks hard.  Also, to get ducks that were hiding under the truck he would grab big rocks and throw them at the ducks.  One duck that was hit with a rock was covered in blood and O laughs abut it.  At one point O jumped on about 6 ducks and started punching them like a madman until they stopped moving.”

“A little while later O uses duct tape to tape a ducks beak closed. He leaves him like this for a few minutes and then has trouble trying to remove the tape. He tells me he likes to mess around with the ducks.”

“A worker killed a duck so that he could eat it. He takes part of the guts and moulds it onto his thumb so that it looks like he has a giant thumb and gives us the thumbs up as a joke. Everyone laughs about it.”

“H is feeding and he tells me that O smashed the head of a duck and now it is hurt. He tells me to bring it to him because he will kill it.  He grabs the duck from me, holds its head with two hands and twists the duck around and around holding onto the head.”

“He then picks up the duck by the feet and slams him down on the concrete. The noise was sickening. He then holds the duck again not saying anything; it is still moving. He gives me the duck and tells me to put it in the garbage.”

“I noticed that they were working fast and the guys cutting off the ducks nails would sometimes take off pretty much half the foot. There was blood everywhere and we were all covered in blood and feces.”