Ducks are semi-aquatic birds with strong biological drives to access open water, creating fundamental welfare challenges in intensive farming systems where this basic behavioral need is denied.
Ducks deprived of open water show intense, persistent motivation to access it - a clear behavioral indicator of welfare compromise. Their eyes and nostrils require water for proper hygiene and function. Birds without bathing water develop eye infections, respiratory issues, and severely compromised feather condition as they cannot perform the water-based preening that maintains feather structure. The inability to express species-typical behaviors including swimming and vigorous preening represents fundamental deprivation. Foie gras production adds the acute suffering of force-feeding to these baseline deprivations. Despite the scale of duck production - billions of birds annually - welfare standards and research attention lag far behind that applied to chickens.