In late May, a family’s pet duck and chicken were killed in Portage Park. But before Henry the duck died, he mated with his partner, Winona.
Out of a clutch of seven eggs, two friendly ducklings have joined the family’s backyard menagerie. Clover and Henry, who was named after his dad, were born at the beginning of June, said Elizabeth Pabello, the owner of the ducklings.
“At first I thought, ‘I don’t really know if I could do this’,” Pabello, 50, said of her experience raising the new ducklings. “I didn’t know if I could keep them here anymore.”
A 15-year-old has been charged with two felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty and one count of misdemeanor criminal trespassing, police said. Police said the boy allegedly entered the backyard and killed Henry along with a chicken named Peep.
At the time the incident occurred, Pabello was at work. She said that by the time she got home, there was blood throughout her backyard.
Pabello said that in her 26 years of living in Portage Park, nothing like this had ever happened. She’s been keeping chickens in her backyard for eight years, and last year started to keep ducks when a neighbor brought Henry by and asked if Pabello could care for him. She estimates that Henry was about a year old when he was killed.
She said Henry was adored by her neighbors and would always walk up to the backyard gate to quack at people walking past.
“Henry was the friendliest of them all,” she said. “He would just quack away at everybody.”
She said the chickens and Winona appeared traumatized by the loss of their companions. Winona was struck in the bill and had blood stuck in her nostrils. She hid in the chicken coop for days after and had trouble eating for weeks, Pabello said.
Since she was severely traumatized, Pabello said, Winona has had a hard time interacting with the two ducklings.
“She’s always by herself,” Pabello said. “She misses her companion, she definitely misses Henry.”
After the tragedy, Pabello said, she felt an immense amount of support from the Portage Park community. Neighbors came to offer their condolences, and some brought flowers to honor Henry and Peep.
She said the incident had a deep impact on many people in the neighborhood, not just her family.
“Every action that we do, whether good or positive or negative, it has a consequence,” she said.
Pabello said her emotions have been all over the place since the death of her pets, seesawing between anger and hope. But the birth of the two ducklings sparked some joy in her backyard.
“It was a sign of hope to me that there’s still good in the world,” Pabello said. “And that good things can come, even out of a tragedy.”