Like cats, ducks love to keep themselves clean. Yet the photos, videos, and written accounts from people who have visited duck farms consistently show ducks in dirty, unhygienic settings. Farmed animal advocates around the world have recently been telling the stories of farmed ducks, who suffer similar plights to other factory-farmed animals. Yet unlike other birds confined by the poultry industry, ducks have a unique experience of being waterfowl in industrial settings that remove them from their natural, water-based habitats.

In nature, free ducks can live to be about 15 to 20 years old, and their lives “revolve around water.” A duck’s body has adapted to live in and near water, with webbed feet, a way to waterproof their own feathers, and “down” feathers to keep themselves warm in the winter.