Let this serve as a cautionary tale.

Sometimes in doing something wonderful and heartfelt for your children you bang your head against city hall.

I just couldn’t get to this Wednesday, too many business-related things to get done, then later in the afternoon some breaking news, so I decided to do it this way because I simply believe the city will not bend on this matter.

Donna Davis choked back tears Tuesday night when she spoke to city council, one woman with a concern that to her was her whole world at the moment because it involved her kids.

Davis went to Tractor Supply during Easter and bought ducklings for her children, a traditional thing to do.

Everything seemed fine and the ducks flourished under her care and became a neighborhood attraction in the block of Madison Street where she lives.

Enter the city on its rounds to pick up trash. The garbage collection crew notices the ducks and reports them to animal control. The ducks must go.

This is not as easy as it sounds because there, of course, is now an attachment. Donna took them to Rochelle Pond. “I cried,” she said on leaving them there, the ducks only going to the edge of the pond to take a drink of water.

Other than that, there is little evidence the ducks ever swam in the water and one was attacked, its bill damaged. Donna cleaned the blood off the duck and nursed it back to health.

The ducks are in a pool protected by a pen in the backyard. They make little noise but they must go. “I told them I’d be willing to pay the $150 fine,” Donna said.

And Dylan, her son who will be in the fifth grade, said he would help. “My uncle Jeff gives me a check every time I’m good.”

Here’s the rub in all of this, the only talking being done in this matter by the city is on what the city doesn’t allow, which leads me to believe this is a lost cause and cautionary tale.

Roanoke Rapids general regulation 91.11 says it is unlawful to keep maintain or allow in the city limits cows, horses, mules, chickens, bees, or other non-domesticated animals unless they existed prior to 1975.

This law has been on the books for more than a half dozen years, says Captain Andy Jackson of the Roanoke Rapids Police Department.

This happens every year, Jackson said. “We recommend to anyone before they take on a pet of any kind — snakes, dogs, cats, ducks — that they check with the city they live in to see what ordinances are on the books as far as animals go.”

Says, Jackson, “It’s a hard thing to do to give up a pet. Check with local regulations. It’s not meant to be troublesome, not meant to cause problems; there are sanitary reasons as well as health reasons. You can have noise ordinances that come into play.”

This issue, in my mind, goes back to the chicken issue a few years ago and council said no to that. I’m pretty convinced they’re going to say no to this as well.

My opinion on the matter sides varies greatly, it goes around like a carousel because there’s no easy way to say what’s on my mind.

You want to side with Donna because of the attachment that is formed and the city has better things to do than ratting out people to animal control. But, if that were the case, the pit bulls on Jefferson Street would not have been found.

You want to scream at Tractor Supply for selling the ducks in the first place when it is not the wisest thing to do.

Donna said the folks at Tractor Supply said nothing about city ordinances and I feel as though management there should educate themselves and their employees and ask folks buying ducklings if they’re in the city or county. It seems to me the right thing to do.

Then Donna and her family, as Captain Jackson said, should have educated themselves and thus this heartbreak could have been avoided.

While they are cute and cuddly, friendly and smart, it’s just not the right thing to do, like buying someone a pet at Christmas.

The National Center for Infectious Diseases strongly advises against giving birds at Easter for a myriad of reasons, which can be found at this link.

Unfortunately, the deed has been done and a new home is going to have to be found for these ducks, tears are going to be shed and these ducks will be released into new, possibly hostile environs.

It’s a shame really, a shame that these ducks are being sold, a shame that no one is advising folks that come to buy them you can’t have ducks in the city limits and a shame at what their ultimate fate will be.

I can’t really call the city evil in this because the regulations have been in place for many years and ducks are not suited for a city environment. It seems the city and Tractor Supply need to sit down and talk so the next time something like this happens there won’t be a next time — Lance Martin

Lance Martin is editor and publisher of rrspin.com