Ducks are aquatic birds with strong motivations to engage in water-based behaviours — preening, bathing, dabbling, and swimming. Intensive duck farming systems that deny water access create welfare problems rooted in the frustration of these fundamental biological needs.
The welfare problem in duck farming is not simply about cruelty but about a systematic mismatch between the species' strong biological needs and the environments they are kept in. Ducks deprived of open water access show redirected behaviours, spend abnormal amounts of time near water drinkers, and have significantly poorer feather condition and ocular health. The frustration of a core behavioural motivation represents real negative welfare, even in the absence of overt pain. Foie gras production causes additional suffering: forced feeding through a tube into the oesophagus, conducted multiple times daily in the final weeks of life, causes liver disease, difficulty breathing, and distress. Slaughter welfare is an additional concern — duck stunning systems are less well-validated than those for chickens, with higher rates of inadequate stunning.