An English viscountess with American roots is seeking justice after claiming a visitor to her estate heartlessly strangled and killed her pet duck Quackers on Wednesday.
Illinois-born Lady Julie Montagu, the Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, claims that Quackers, her white Runner duck, who has been at Mapperton, her family estate in West Dorset, for 10 years, was at first attacked by a dog, while the canine’s owner watched.
“The owner saw this happen, the duck was flapping, and the owner took the duck in her hands and strangled the duck and threw the duck in the long grass,” Montagu explained in an Instagram video to her 190,000 followers.
The duck killer then left the estate, which also operates as a hotel, said Montagu, who hosts the American Viscountess YouTube channel and starred in the reality show “Ladies of London.”
At the end of the clip, the mom of four called for the woman to come forward, asking “Can you please contact us and have a conversation with us?”
Montagu, 52, who hails from Sugar Grove, Illinois, runs the estate about 130 miles southwest of London with her husband, Luke, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, who took it over from his parents, the Earl and Countess of Sandwich, in 2016.
The vsicount told the BBC he wasn’t planning on reporting the harrowing incident to the police, but hoped the suspect would present herself “to say sorry and to help find a replacement.”
“There are numerous signs at Mapperton asking visitors to keep their dogs on a lead [leash] because of the ducks and chickens,” he told the outlet.
“While accidents can happen, it is upsetting that this person would leave the scene without saying anything.”
