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Villagers near Whitby sign up to save their feathered friends
HUNDREDS of people have signed up to save the famous ducks of Ruswarp.
The Save Ruswarp Ducks!!! Facebook group is the brainchild of resident Andrew Parker who spotted some of the ducks being loaded from the river into a van following a spate of duck deaths on the road through the village.
Mr Parker, who works at Mini Monsterz, said he was appalled at seeing some taken away.
He told the Whitby Gazette: "I think it's shocking.
"The ducks are mating at this time of the year and some of them might have had their partners taken away."
Mr Parker (27), who has lived in the village for 10 years, added: "I bring my little boy Matthew down to feed the ducks.
"I used to come and feed them myself when I was a kid.
"I think they took the swan and two white geese that have been there for years.
"I was coming to work at Mini Monsterz and I saw them being loaded into cages in the back of a van.
"I set up the Facebook group and in the space of a few hours around 50 members had joined."
Gary Sims has had the pleasure boats at Ruswarp for 24 years.
He owns the land and fishing rights where the ducks congregate.
He told the Whitby Gazette: "There were just too many of them, they were becoming a menace.
"At one point round about Christmas time about 14 of them got squashed on the road, we rang the RSPB and they helped us arrange for them to go to a farm at Robin Hood's Bay that has a pond."
Several concerned readers called the newsdesk in recent weeks expressing concern for the ducks welfare on the busy stretch of road.
Mr Sims, who runs the pleasure boats with his wife Sandra, added:"They came in a van to take them to the farm.
"They didn't manage to get many ducks although we did try with some bread.
"We got one of the geese that kept pecking at the children and they were frightened of it.
"With it coming up to the season we thought we would deal with it now by getting them taken away.
"People drive up in their cars and the ducks go out of the river and up to the cars, they were not wild ducks.
"They weren't wild ducks though as some of them just appeared overnight and had tags on their legs so I think maybe someone had just wanted rid of them.
"We just wanted to try and keep the numbers down a bit to stop them getting killed by cars on the road and to stop them getting aggressive with customers and people who come to feed them."
* What do you think?
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Weather for Whitby
Saturday 19 May 2012
Today
Heavy rain
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
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Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 9 C
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