A warehouse in Orange County had received a late order of balut, a Southeast Asian delicacy made from fertilized duck eggs, but now the warehouse had a crisis on its hands: Hundreds of eggs were hatching.
The distributor was indecisive. He knew he couldn't raise hundreds of these ducklings, which were destined to be eaten before they were born, but now that they had hatched, it seemed immoral to abandon them to die in a garbage dump.
So she called her friends and her friends' friends to ask if they knew anyone who might be willing to take on the furry creatures. That's how she found The Duck Pond Inc., a waterfowl sanctuary for pet birds run by Howard Berkowitz.
Newly hatched ducklings from a failed balut order feed inside a playground.
(Jireh Deng / Los Angeles Times)
“This is the largest rescue we’ve ever been involved in,” Berkowitz said. When he picked up the baby waterfowl, he was horrified to see their condition: They were starving and dehydrated from the Southern California heat.
“Some of them who [had] “She had been alive for one, two or three days and had no food or water,” she added. Of the 350 ducklings she rescued, only 140 were successfully cured.
A week after the rescue, Berkowitz put out a call for foster parents to care for the newborn ducklings; by the end of the day, only a few dozen of the tiny, fuzzy yellow creatures remained. Berkowitz picked up a duckling from a pen that had been converted into a duck nursery. The duckling squealed in protest as she cupped it in her palm before relaxing, yielding to her gentle caress.
Howard “Howie the Duck” Berkowitz is a bespectacled man in his 60s with a graying beard and curly, graying hair that sticks out from the sides of his baseball cap like the feathers on a duck’s tail. A former biochemist and part-time classic car mechanic, he spends most of his days responding to urgent duck rescue calls.
Volunteer Valerie Norris holds her foster ducklings.
(Jireh Deng/Los Angeles Times)
Berkowitz’s sanctuary, a nonprofit officially known as Duck Pond (but also Duck Sanctuary), occupies less than an acre in rural Winchester, Riverside County. It’s home to a motley crew of 400 ducks, geese and chickens, including a hybrid goose that belongs to one of the world’s rarest goose populations, the Hawaiian Nene. Berkowitz has his hands full feeding them daily and making sure their kiddie pools are replaced with clean water every few hours.
He said he doesn't have any children of his own, so the ducks are his children. “If anything ever happens to me,” Berkowitz said, “I have a half-million-dollar life insurance policy.” [to cover] “the duck sanctuary.”
Why does he care so much about the plight of these waterfowl? “Birds are completely different,” Berkowitz said, citing his pet goose, Goosifer, who travels with him in the car everywhere. “When they bond with a human, you actually become part of their flock.”
With the latest rescue, Berkowitz said, he hopes favorable media coverage will increase his visibility and help fund his work.
“We're hoping to find some corporate sponsorship or someone willing to write a check,” Berkowitz said.
Berkowitz's enthusiasm for waterfowl, however, has both detractors and supporters.
In total, the duck pond is home to 400 permanent residents, many of them non-native domestic birds abandoned by their former owners.
(Jireh Deng/Los Angeles Times)
“I actually got divorced because of that. My wife couldn’t handle the responsibilities anymore,” Berkowitz said. “She left me for the duck sanctuary.”
The operation has also angered local residents, who have not appreciated the fuss caused by hundreds of ducks and geese.
To the casual passerby, this sloppy operation may appear disorganized and messy. Among the sights are dozens of Amazon boxes stacked haphazardly on a picnic table and a basket of once-fresh, now-rotting peaches that Berkowitz failed to feed to his ducks. Battalions of flies circle around the duck pens. But to Berkowitz, the messy appearance hasn’t diminished what he considers the quality care he’s provided his ducks.
“Animal control has called us several times,” Berkowitz said. “And animal control comes and does their due diligence, and we have passed all inspections.”
The mess that is created in the duck sanctuary is sometimes unavoidable. Ducks defecate everywhere because it is impossible to potty train them: they have no sphincters to control when and where they defecate.
That muddy water that ducks swim in, drink from and use as a toilet? It’s not brackish at all, according to Berkowitz, who says ducks dig in the dirt for bugs and then carry the dirt into the water. Ducks, like pigs, apparently love mud. “It’s water that’s been around for two hours.”
Riverside County code enforcement officers have notified Berkowitz twice in two different locations that he had brought an “excessive” number of animals into a residential area. Due to issues with neighbors and code enforcement, he has had to move his original duck sanctuary off his property several times.
“This guy had too many ducks to properly care for,” said Mo Middleton, director of animal control for Animal Friends of the Valley. She said the group has Berkowitz on a “Do Not Adopt” list that prohibits him from taking any more waterfowl from its shelter. “If we have ducks here, we don’t allow him to take them.”
Every day, Berkowitz feeds his birds 250 pounds of food, which costs him $170 a day.
(Jireh Deng/Los Angeles Times)
But Berkowitz is already aware of capacity issues at her current location in a backyard volunteered by a Winchester owner, and she is in the process of selling her home to purchase 20 acres of land where her rescues will have a larger plot of land to roam. GoFundMe efforts have allowed her to raise more than $17,000, but Berkowitz said she needs $200,000 to build a permanent home for her rescues.
“The dream is to have a functioning sanctuary that also has an educational center, where young people can learn to respect and treat animals,” said Duck Pond Chief Financial Officer Tylor Taylor.
Middleton is wary of rescuers who use the plight of abandoned animals for personal financial gain. Although the IRS recognizes Duck Pond as a nonprofit that can receive tax-deductible donations, the organization has not yet registered with the Registry of Charities and Fundraisers maintained by the state attorney general's office. According to the attorney general's office, “failure to register can result in penalties, administrative or legal action, and loss of tax-exempt status with the government.” [state] Franchise Tax Board”.
But Taylor said that as far as he knows, everything the organization does is legal and in compliance with Internal Revenue Service rules since it first registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit two years ago. He added that the work has not been profitable for Berkowitz.
“He had to practically go bankrupt to keep that place running,” Taylor said.
According to Berkowitz, he has been short of money from day one. In addition to water bills and food expenses of $170 a day, he has to pay a $3,000 vet bill. He estimates he spends about $1,000 of his own money each month on operations that are not covered by donations to his nonprofit. He has had to sell more than a dozen of his vintage cars to continue funding the operations. On the side, he said, he still restores vintage cars for the rich and famous, which helps cover his personal expenses.
Berkowitz’s services seem to be in high demand, with a new crisis to address emerging almost every day. But while wildlife care facilities can often apply for conservation funding, such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Grant Program, Berkowitz’s sanctuary cannot.
Berkowitz holds the Egyptian goose rescued from the golf course.
(Jireh Deng / Los Angeles Times)
Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, said she has worked with him for 10 years, referring non-native waterfowl to Berkowitz’s sanctuary. She praises his dedication and willingness to maintain his operations almost single-handedly. When she visited his sanctuary, she said, she didn’t see any issues that would raise red flags about animal welfare.
Many duck sanctuaries have tried to stay open without success, he said, and Berkowitz’s is one of the last remaining. “I always admire those that can keep going.”
Fortunately, Berkowitz said, detractors and critics are few, and support for his work continues. On $5 Fridays, 50 to 60 people donate to the duck pond. Others have donated food for the ducks; on some days he receives cabbage, watermelon and strawberries, as well as worms, a favorite of waterfowl.
Taylor is just one of the people who originally dropped off a rescued bird and then found herself drawn to Berkowitz’s work. At least a dozen volunteers take turns visiting the site every week to clean and feed the birds — some traveling from as far away as West Hollywood for two hours just to help.
“This place is amazing,” said Bunni Amburgey, who has adopted several newborn ducklings. Amburgey attended middle and high school with Berkowitz and has known him for 45 years; she said his work comes from a place of true altruism. “Are shelters or sanctuaries ever perfect?” she asked rhetorically. “No, but at least they have a place to go to get veterinary care, food and safety.”
