Old Bill called after farm ducks stolen

IT’S a theft that has driven its victims well and truly quackers.

Ducks Darwin, Stella, Sylvia and Otis were among the pets kept by Ingrid Allan.

But 18-year-old Ingrid and her mum Tina Woolnough found themselves calling the Old Bill when they returned from holiday to discover the beloved birds had mysteriously vanished from their temporary accommodation in an enclosure at Gorgie City Farm.

After finding the latch open the pair, from Blackhall, realised the ducks had been nabbed and turned to police.

Posters were put up in an effort to jog the memory of anyone who might have seen the animals being carried off, with Ingrid even visiting local butchers to ask if they had been offered duck meat. But with no news of a sighting, Ingrid and Tina are close to accepting they will never see Darwin, a white Pekin, Stella and Sylvia, both Aylesburys, and Otis, a Cayuga, again after their disappearance last Wednesday.

Ingrid, an illustration student at Telford College, said: “My immediate feeling when I went to the farm was that someone had just moved them but, after looking for them all over the farm and with farmers saying none of the animals had been moved, the alarm bells started ringing.”

She said the loss of the ducks, which inspired many of her drawings, had left a hole in her day-to-day life.

Ingrid added: “It’s been hard. They used to quack and greet me when I got home from college, but they’re not there any more. I had the same sort of emotional attachment to them that someone would have to an old dog that had been in the family for years.”

She added: “I just don’t understand what anyone would want with my ducks. There were 34 ducks in total on the farm that day and I cannot understand why my four were taken.”

Mum Tina, 50, who works as a fundraiser, stressed she and the family were not blaming Gorgie City Farm for the ducks’ sudden disappearance, which she said had left her mystified.

She said: “They were big ducks – Darwin in particular was very aggressive and protective. If anyone had tried to touch the other ducks he would have set about them.

“I can’t understand why anyone would take them and it was very weird because there was just no sign of them anywhere. It’s a real shame – those ducks were real characters.”