Quote Originally Posted by Jeff B View Post
With duck hunting season in the fall and ducklings being born in the spring, how is it that you arrived with hunter-orphaned ducklings?

Well, nobody said it was legal hunting. But I still have to wonder how one knows for sure that the ducklings in question, truly were orphaned? If I had a nickel for every time I've seen people pick up baby birds with the intention of "rescuing" them "because they were abandoned" when they really weren't...

Quote Originally Posted by d_virginiana View Post
I understand why it's a law, though I can't really say I apologize for taking a half-dead turtle from my dog, giving it a bit of neosporin, and feeding it from our garden for two weeks until it could walk again, ya know?
And I don't think anyone here feels you should apologize.

Quote Originally Posted by d_virginiana View Post
I've seen plenty of threads along the lines of 'saved this garter from my cat' where someone takes a wild animal and keeps it and gets nothing but praise. I have no issue with that (obviously) but it just seemed a bit unfair when the same law was broken in both cases, you know? I'm on the third day of no sleep and intense family drama, so I apologize if what I'm writing is of dubious logic.
Not questioning your motives or your actions at all. In fact, I would be one to pat you on the back and praise you when the outcome saves an animal. Just saying the actions of doing so isn't exactly legal and there's even a very good chance that in spite of saving an animal, you could end up doing more harm than good by interfering, depending on the circumstances.

I just think that for the most part, rescuing wildlife should be left to the people who are authorized to do so. If someone really did kill the parents of the ducklings, the best thing you could have done is call wildlife officials and report it, since ducklings are born outside hunting season, instead of taking it upon yourself to rescue the ducklings. It's a little different when you're talking about "my cat caught a garter snake" because quite frankly, they wouldn't bother with rehabilitating a garter snake so that pretty much leaves it up to you.