Duck Off Warden!!
Posted by VickyC on November 12th, 2009
A mother in England, who had taken her toddler to the park to feed the ducks was left angered after being fined by a local council warden. The warden had approached Ms. Kelly, 26, and told her that feeding the ducks was banned in the park. Upon hearing this, Ms. Kelly immediately put the bread away. But to her complete surprise the warden took out a hand held computer and issued her a ticket on the spot for £75.
According to the accused, there were no signs in the park saying anything to this effect, except a warning against “overfeeding”. However, the Warden claimed that the bread attracted vermin. The only vermin it attracted was the one that issued the £75 fine. I mean, were the ducks complaining? Was the bread not to their liking?! And how do you know when a duck is overfed?! Does it sigh deeply and loosen it’s belt before settling down to have a nice afternoon nap?! I know some animals just don’t have the common sense to stop eating, but generally, I’m sure the ducks know what they’re doing when they start ingesting bread! And overfeeding the ducks doesn’t in any way imply that feeding them in the first place is against the law..
To think that taking your child to the park to feed the ducks is worthy of a fine is ridiculous! Her 17 month old son, according to the warden, was “too young to be prosecuted”. This begs the question that if her child were to be older, would they have received two tickets? Maybe an ASBO as well? Put onto some kind of “deviant person” register? Ms. Kelly has made an official complaint and I wish her the best of luck with fighting this lunacy.
If the council were to be as vigilant on actual litter bugs and and people engaging in deviant behaviour, the parks and towns would be so much nicer than they are now! It’s not like she was throwing garbage on the ground. How many of you remember going to feed the ducks as a child? I know I did, and I used to love it! It’s free, and a lot of fun for the whole family.
But let’s not forget that in modern Britain, easy targets are fair game. Besides, the warden was probably too afraid to go after the hoodlums who deface public property with graffiti or running around wielding knives. How on earth does the council go about employing people to do these jobs?! Fining someone for going to the park with their child to feed the ducks. At least she wasn’t taking him down to the pub with her!
Maybe we could save the warden the hassle of physically having to walk up to us by being made to wear “registration numbers” on ourselves. That way, when we do something petty like this, the first we’ll hear of it will be the fine that we receive in the mail. Maybe some kind of mass registration/identification scheme is what all this money is being collected for…???
Too far fetched? Perhaps, but not that long ago, stories like this would have seemed far fetched too…
Tags: Bread, Council, Duck, Feeding, Fine, Food, Government, Great Britain, Illegal, News, Ridiculous, Stupidity
