Daisy the duck had been enjoying swimming in a puddle at the end of a garden on Poles Lane, Otterbourne, when a gunman, wielding a suspected air rifle, aimed at her through the fence from a van and fired.
Two projectiles struck her. One went through her head and the other into her neck. Her owner, grandmother Lesley Gash, is concerned she may not survive.
Lesley, whose husband saw the incident unfold, said: “I am pretty shocked. He happened to be watching the ducks playing in the water at the time.
“He saw a white transit van pull up adjacent to our fence.
“My husband thought that’s odd, and then the next thing he knew, he saw one of them get shot.
“Somebody in the van shot through the passenger window through my fence into the garden and hit one of my ducks.”
Lesley says many of these ducks were raised from eggs by her granddaughters, who are often at the end of the garden playing with them.
Around a dozen ducks, all named, are kept in the garden where there is a duck house.
Lesley and her husband have kept ducks as pets in their garden for around 25 years.
Lesley added: “My girls keep the garden clear of pests, and we get eggs. Daisy was bought at only a few weeks old and is less than two years old.
“Now the question is, has she got too much damage to continue to eat and drink, and will she survive. We just don’t know.
“I just can’t believe someone would do that. This sort of thing doesn’t happen in Otterbourne.
“On a different day, my grandchildren would have been playing there.
“For other people, this might just be a duck, but it is far more significant than that.”
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A police spokesperson said: “We were called at 3.29pm on January 27, to a report of a duck being injured by a shot from a suspected air rifle in Poles Lane.
“Anyone with information should call 101 quoting reference 44260046555.”
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