Resident Mourns Pet Duck Hit By Car In Oak Creek: 'Heartless'

OAK CREEK, WI — A family of five ducks is now four after a driver struck and killed one on County Line Road in Oak Creek last week.

The ducks live at Michelle Benish's property on the Racine side of County Line Road. They have a small pen there that they sleep in during the night, but during the day they've become something of a community staple. The ducks roam around the neighborhood during the day, visiting neighbors and friends of Benish, she said.

How did they come to call Benish's property home? They appeared one day in a box, Benish told Patch. She said her stepson came home with the box and two ducks inside, and the rest is history.

"We have older people on our street that love them and feed them and pet them," Benish said, "we have kids across the street that come over to see them."

Last week, though, Benish said a white SUV driving down County Line Road hit and killed one of the ducks. The evening of Oct. 14, the ducks were crossing County Line Road while Benish's neighbor was looking out the window at them.

"It was horrible, I was in the garage and I heard Dean (Benish's neighbor) hollering and screaming," Benish said. "I came out of the garage and saw him picking up the duck."

Benish said her neighbor on the Oak Creek side of the road witnessed the whole thing from his window. The neighbor told Benish that as he watched the ducks start to cross the road, he saw a car coming that wasn't slowing down — and then the car ran the duck over, Benish said.

"There was no slowdown, no brakes after hitting the duck, there was nothing. He went all the way down County Line and never came back," Benish said of her neighbor's account of the incident.

"Did I cry when the duck got hit, no, but was I super sad? Of course I was, they're a part of you," Benish said.