Who shot Tina the duck?

TENNESSEE -- Laura Cearley found Tina's body while checking on a group of kittens after Tuesday afternoon's storms. "That's when I saw the white duck — that's when I saw the body," she said.

Tina was one of Cearley's pet white ducks she kept at her Waterford Drive home. In January, Cearley had three white ducks.

The last of her ducks was shot and killed Tuesday.

Madison County Sheriff's Office spokesman Tom Mapes said that no charges have been filed and so far there are no witnesses to the shooting. The sheriff's department was called at about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.

"I had just seen her lolling around in the water," Cearley said. "I don't know what to do."

Cearley said all that's left of the ducks is one mallard who had befriended her ducks. "He's out there right now swimming in circles, quacking," she said Wednesday. "He had gotten used to having one friend — he doesn't know what to do."

Cearley said her three ducks were all rescues — she has a heart for adopting animals, and the ducks made sweet pets. In January, she said one of her white ducks was found with a .22 caliber bullet wound. On Tuesday, she and her husband found the same kind of wound on Tina.

Cearley's third duck is still missing. "We never found a body," she said.

Cearley said ducks are not the only pets she rescues, noting the cats and kittens she keeps at her house, but said she had never received any complaints about her ducks.

"The neighbors didn't say anything," she said. "They watched them on the lake."

Cearley said she did not see who killed her ducks, but believes she knows who the perpetrator is.

Friend Ana Taylor said she knows the ducks' deaths have hurt Cearley.

"It hurt Laura when it happened in January," Taylor said. "It's hurting her again. It hurts me to see her hurt."

Taylor said the death has been devastating, knowing someone could harm an animal.

"She's your average pet — that probably didn't realize she was a duck."

Mapes said the Sheriff's Office will continue to investigate. Anyone with information in the shooting can call the Sheriff's Office at (731) 423-6000, or Crimestoppers at (731) 424-8477.

(Jackson Sun - July 15, 2015)