Tommy Topsy Turvy

We found him trapped on his back, desperately trying to right himself. His little legs were working overtime trying to flip himself back over the right way. He had been there for some time, on his back, on the floor that was inches thick with duck poo. He had ammonia burns on his body. I picked him up and took him with us. I nicknamed him “Topsy Turvy” and his name is “Tommy Topsy Turvy”.

Tommy was hatched in this intensive duck farm. He was but a week old. He was hatched. He was thrown in to a shed with thousands of other ducklings who were destined to become the ducks you eat. He was tiny. He wass dehydrated. He was sick.

 Thousands and thousands of ducklings stood behind him looking at me with fear in their eyes. From where I sat, I could see at least 20 little dead duckling bodies on the floor, they had all become stuck in the manure laden floor and had died there of dehydration and starvation.

I picked him up and took him. I also picked up 3 other ducklings who were struggling to live, stuck in the floor at the same time. Often the thing that goes through your mind in places like this is – do I leave them to die here, or take them to die later?. This isn’t callous, it’s fact. Most of the animals who are nearly dead in factory farms don’t survive after rescue, the ones that do are miracles. We often take them knowing too well that they won’t survive, but also knowing too well that their deaths will be kinder. There is no love for an animal in a farm, there is no kindness for them as they leave this world, it’s the least we (as rescuers and decent humans) can give these animals.

Little Tommy was so weak, he had no fight left in him. He was treated at the vet the next morning after rescue, but he just wasn’t strong enough to push past the cruel start in life he had been given.

He never knew his mother. He never swam in water. He never saw the sky. He never walked on dirt. He did, however, die with people who cared about him and who knew he was more than just a meal on a plate and a dollar sign.

He also had a name. Most don’t. Tommy Topsy Turvy.

Please don’t use my images without permission. All images are Copyright Tamara Kenneally