Hundreds of amateur sleuths have joined the hunt to avenge the murder of the beloved pet duck Quackers who was strangled on a country estate last week.
Julie Montagu, also known as Viscountess Hinchingbrooke had her 10-year-old Indian runner duck attacked by a small brown and white terrier at Mapperton House in Dorset, before its female dog owner brutally broken the bird’s neck and tossed its body into the long grass.
Following the savage attack, witnessed by a gardener, the Viscountess appealed for information on her Instagram page and was quickly inundated with over 2000 messages and emails.
The 50-year-old influencer, who has not yet gone to the police or the RSPCA under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, wants the dog walker to come forward to ‘apologise and [offer] an explanation’.
Speaking to the Times she said: ‘It must be somebody local because, number one, they weren’t going to the house and garden as a visitor. She’s clearly coming here on a dog walk.
‘It’s amazing what this has brought up, all these people trying to find out who the duck strangler is. We’ve probably been sent a handful of names so far. It’s a work in progress. I think give it a couple more days, and I don’t know, I feel pretty good about this.’
Lady Montagu, who was born in Sugar Grove, Illinois, runs a popular YouTube channel called ‘American Viscountess’ which documents her life on the estate, and now boasts over 223,000 subscribers.
Her husband Luke is the eldest son of the Earl of Sandwich and their country estate is home to gardens, a café, a wild play area and a self-guided safari.
She added: ‘We’ve had people suggesting dogs within the area that have been aggressive terriers, and you know, could this be the one? If we get a photo of the woman and the dog through we can show that to the gardener who saw her, and hopefully we can identify her.
‘There was obviously some part of her that just thought, well crikey, I’m not going to come clean with this, and so I’m going to throw it in the long grass.’
There are signs around the estate reminding the 15,000 annual visitors to keep their dogs on leads.
The viscountess has since started a GoFundMe page to raise £20,000 for a new wetland habitat to attract wild ducks in Quackers’s memory.
Mapperton House has 1,900 acres of grounds which has cattle, chickens and ducks among its animals. It has recently been conducting a rewilding project.
Quackers has since been buried in the garden.