Vermont family to keep wood duck after state issues permit

MIDDLESEX, Vt. -- State game officials have backed down and allowed a woman to keep a 3-year-old wood duck that was brought home by one of her dogs when it was a chick.

Earlier this year, a game warden arrived at Kimberlee Stevens' home in Middlesex to take the duck named Peep.

When Stevens refused to hand the animal over, the warden promised to return with a search warrant.

On Friday, the state Fish and Wildlife Department relented and issued a permit allowing the family to keep the bird.

Stevens said one of her dogs brought home the chick in late May 2013.

They looked for a nest and its mother but couldn't find any hint of where it came from.

"It was like he was just dropped from the sky," she said Monday. "It was really strange."

Now, Peep lives inside Stevens' farmhouse, roams the house alongside her five dogs and seven cats, sleeps next to her bed and has his own Facebook page.

In good weather, he goes outside.

"He takes a little flight every now and then, but it's just around the house and back," Stevens said. "He's like, 'I'm not going nowhere."'

Peep is not housetrained.

"He poops all over. I just keep my bucket full of bleach water; we just go behind him," she said.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter said Monday private citizens aren't allowed to keep wildlife as pets because it can be dangerous for people and critters.

"It's a very, very bad idea for people to take any wild animal out of the wild, even if they think they're helping," Porter said.

If state officials had taken Peep, the duck would have been taken to a licensed animal rehabilitator.

"In this particular case, it seems as though the damage by leaving this particular duck in place would be less than through issuing this permit," he said.