Drunk man swinging ‘scared’ duckling around bribed with cigarette to let bird go

Samuel Phillips charged with being drunk and disorderly

‘It wandered off and I hope it’s okay. It was a beautiful little duck’ (Getty)

A man who was allegedly seen “swinging” a live duckling around before eventually trading it for a cigarette has been arrested.

Witnesses said the yellow fluffy bird “obviously scared” when he entered a charity shop in Loughborough on Tuesday morning.

As concerned people asked him to hand it over he swore at them, refused and said the animal was his, and that he’d been on the train and night bus with it, witnesses told the Leicester Mercury newspaper.

“He was off his face and as he walked in he nearly fell onto the floor," said Rachel Wade, a teacher at Loughborough College. "He smelled strongly of alcohol and the woman working in the shop was trying to get him to leave."

“I saw the duck, which was still young – yellow and fluffy – and was obviously scared. I said to him: ‘It’s crying, why don’t I take it back to its mum’. But he just swore at me and told me I couldn’t have it. As he left the shop and wandered along the road I started calling the police and that’s when he started to swing the baby duck.”

As more people told him to give up the duckling. the man became aggressive, shaking and swinging the animal about, Ms Wade said.

Eventually the man said he would swap the duckling for a cigarette. A woman nearby had one and gave it to him, at which point he immediately dropped the duckling.

Ms Wade picked up the duckling and together with the woman who had provided the cigarette, they took the duckling to the park.

“I was hoping to find its mother but I couldn’t see any others. It wandered off and I hope it’s okay. It was a beautiful little duck,” she said.

Leicestershire Police confirmed a man had been arrested and charged following the incident.

A spokesman said officers were called out "about concern over the treatment of a duck."

He added: “Officers attended and a male was arrested.”

Samuel Phillips, 26, of Mansfield was charged with being drunk and disorderly in public place. He was bailed and is due to appear in Leicester Magistrates Court on 18 June.

The RSPCA recommends lost ducklings whose mothers are unable to find them after two hours are brought to a wildlife centre.