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In what is, without question, one of the gross miscarriages of justice we have ever seen, a live duck named Quacktavious has been banned from Oregon’s Autzen Stadium.
Yes, you read that right.
Quacktavious, an emotional support duck, was on hand for the Ducks’ (football team) blowout win over Deion Sanders and Colorado.
But how exactly did our fowl friend get into the stadium? And why was he so rudely removed?
Well, James Crepea of The Oregonian did the journalistic dirty work to get all the web-footed details.
As it turns out, Quacktavious is the registered emotional support animal of Oregon sophomore Jeremy Jackson.
Jackson, who transferred from Mississippi State over the summer, bought him as a duckling from Tractor Supply Co. in Starkville, Mississippi last year.
He then registered Quacktavious as an emotional support animal following a medical emergency in June 2022 that was originally diagnosed as a seizure and later believed to be myocarditis.
“I had him in his carrier and once I got inside I was just walking around with him. I thought someone was going to say something at first, then no one did,” Jackson told Crepea. “As the game went on eventually someone did walk up to me, I think it was one of the EMS workers and he asked me how’d I get the duck in. I just walked in with him; it wasn’t me trying to hide anything. He told his supervisor and his supervisor came up there and she was like, ‘OK, and?’ She didn’t have a problem with it.
“Then later on I held him up and that’s how the (sheriffs) came up to us. The (sheriffs) get up there and they said if you let the duck go, you can come back but the duck has to go. I’m like, ‘it’s my duck, I can’t just let him go.’”
So, what happened next?
Well, Oregon fans are known as some of the best in the country for a reason.
“(They said) they’ll leave it up to the athletic department,” Jackson said. “During the whole process you hear the people around me saying ‘keep the duck.’ I’m like, oh my gosh this is wild. The (sheriffs) left and all you heard was ‘show the duck, show the duck.’ So I held him up again and everybody lost their mind. I said, well I guess we’re staying.”
Oregon spokesperson Angela Seyde told Crepea that Accessible Education Center will now determine what happens next.
“While a duck can be an emotional support animal under this exception, the Accessible Education Center has not approved emotional support animals in athletic venues,” Seydel said.
Jackson said he’s also attended soccer and volleyball matches, but did so sans Quacktavious. He says he is waiting to get approval from the athletic department.
As it turns out, Quacktavious and Jackson are basically inseparable.
“It’s like any regular animal,” Jackson said. “When I’m at school or wherever I may be, I have an automatic water and feeding for him. It’s more simple than you’d think. The whole following me thing, most people are like ‘dude, how did you train him to follow you?’ I didn’t. He did that himself. I just put him on the ground one day and he started following me. A lot of people ask me, ‘you’re not scared he’s going to fly away?’ No, he just does his thing. He can fly; he’s flown before, but he doesn’t leave my side. If he flies away, he flies away, I’m not going to stop him. He hasn’t flown away yet.”
How could you possibly ban that?
Justice for Quacktavious.