Nearly 500 ducks were surrendered to Riverside County Animal Services by a rescue sanctuary in Anza, in one of the largest intakes of animals in years.
Thursday, April 16, 2026 1:56AMNearly 500 ducks were surrendered to Riverside County Animal Services by a rescue sanctuary in Anza, in one of the largest intakes of animals in years.
'This is the largest intake of any species for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services in probably the past decade,' said Veronica Perez, a spokesperson with Riverside County Animal Services.
The 480 ducks came from an animal sanctuary in Anza, where the owner of the property was caring for not just ducks, but geese, roosters and even a pig. Perez said the department is conducting an investigation into the property where the animals were taken from, saying they received a complaint about severe overcrowding at the facility.
'Given the scale of overcrowding that we were seeing, it prompted us to say, 'It's best to test some of the animals to see if there was anything going on,'' Perez said. 'And so we were able to get a sample to test for infectious diseases, and they all came back negative. But with the scale of overcrowding, if they were in a better environment, they might not be as stressed. They might not have maybe some of the deficiencies in vitamins maybe that they could be having. Really, it was working with the property owner to say, 'Hey, let's find better placement for these animals given the severe overcrowding.'
Now, they're all up for adoption at the San Jacinto Valley animal shelter at 581 S. Grand Avenue in San Jacinto. Riverside County Animal Services has actually waived all adoption fees countywide because of overcrowding.
Perez said they're asking that people interested in adopting ducks adopt at least two of them, and hopefully more.
Daniel Markichevich and his fiancé Savannah Burgardt were at the shelter on Wednesday. They said they plan on adopting 20 ducks for their San Jacinto property. 'We have a 3.5-acre farm, so they will just go right into the area and enjoy, and we'll get out there and look at them, eat their eggs and have a whole full life for them,' said Markichevich, who recently completed construction on a pond in their backyard.
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