Delhi Parks Director Says Vulnerable Ducks Will Be Rescued By End of Summer

Some of the domestic ducks abandoned at Delhi Park. Photo: facebook.com/Longbottom Bird Ranch

Help is on the way for a large group of abandoned ducks at Delhi Park, according to the township’s Parks & Recreation department.

The parks department’s director Randy Supe told CityBeat via email they’ve been working with the nonprofit Mid Ohio Waterfowl Rescue in Shelby, Ohio, (about a three-hour drive from Delhi Township) to rehome the ducks since the media first picked up the story in mid-July.

The issue with the abandoned ducks at Delhi Park’s Clearview Lake came to light in early July when several people reached out to Jimmy Longbottom of the duck rescue Longbottom Bird Ranch to save the ducks. All the ducks in question were domestic breeds, which cannot fly and cannot survive long-term in the wild.

“So I went down and took a look and there was a massive amount of ducks, probably at the time about 25 to 30,” Longbottom previously told CityBeat.

Longbottom reached out to the parks department for permission to catch the ducks and take them back to the ranch. He says he’s never been met with resistance until an email exchange with Supe that took place from July 5-14.

“I kind of got put in a holding pattern for a week or so until I finally heard back from [Supe], at which time he wanted more information. In the first two emails I explained why [the ducks] couldn’t be there and then he kind of weirdly said they’ll find their way south if they need to,” he said.

Longbottom explained to Supe that the ducks couldn’t fly south for the winter. Any ducks left at Clearview Lake that don’t starve or die from infection, injury or from a predator by November would freeze to death in the winter. Supe asked for more information about Longbottom’s rescue, writing due to the township’s policies, he would need as much information about the rescue as possible before making a decision. Getting frustrated at how long it was taking to get help for the ducks, Longbottom wrote back, “Disregard. I won’t be coming for those ducks. Thanks.”

But at that point, Longbottom said he was still planning on taking the ducks, just in secret. And around the same time, local news outlets were picking up the story.

“So at that point, I was just going to go take the ducks, which I don’t mind saying. It had been two weeks at this point. Then the news got involved at this point. … Then I guess [Delhi Township] told the news they would release the ducks to me. So I said, ‘Great,’ and then I never heard from them. And I eventually got an email that said, ‘We found another rescue we’re going to work with.’”

But when Longbottom returned to the park last week, nearly a month later, after getting reports of injured ducks, he said many of the ducks were still there and in worse shape than before. The next day, CityBeat reached out to Supe, who confirmed the parks department was working with a nonprofit rescue, but declined to share the rescue’s name or the timeframe the ducks would be saved.

Along with confirming the name of the nonprofit Monday, Supe also gave CityBeat a timeframe in which the ducks would be rescued.

“We do have a scheduled date for this process and will hopefully get it done without a lot of chaos involved. The organization already deals with these situations and knows [how] hectic and stressful it can be on animals and them as a rescue,” he said in an email. “The domestic ducks in question will be gone by end of summer. We will continue to monitor this in the future.”

On Monday, Longbottom, as he was rescuing ducks from a pond in Loveland, told CityBeat he was happy the ducks were being rehomed, but he said Delhi Park’s ducks were just a fraction of the problem.

“I’m glad to hear the ducks found a home. There are still a lot of dumped ducks on a lot of ponds all around Cincinnati. Hopefully we can find a way to stop this problem instead of just continuing to clean up the mess,” he said.

Subscribe to CityBeat newsletters.