Woman's weird behaviour at duck pond?

[QT3point14]

Aibu to find this woman weird?

Dh and I took the kids to our local park today. The park has a little pond with some ducks and swans and we walked down to the water as our kids wanted to see the birds.
At this pond, there was another family consisting of a Mum, Dad, and two young children. This family had brought some bread to feed the ducks. Their kids seemed to be loving it and were giggling away, the animals were loving it and our kids were loving watching it.

A random woman walks by with a toddler. She stops and passive aggressively tells her child using a very loud voice, so the other family can hear her that you shouldn't feed the ducks as it's not allowed. The other family ignored her and continued with what they were doing.

The random woman then took her child over to a rusty, dirty old sign and very loudly read it out to her child. The sign states not to feed the ducks as it can attract vermin. Again the family ignored her. She read the sign very loudly again! She then rants that they are feeding the ducks white bread and this is so super harmful. This behaviour went on for a good 5 minutes with the other family continuing to ignore her.

At this point I'm thinking wtf is she trying to achieve here? Either have the balls to approach the family and share your concerns or mind your own business. What on earth was she hoping to achieve by passive aggressively randting in the background? The park was pretty busy and loads of people were staring at this poor family that just wanted to enjoy some time together.

Is it just me or is this a bit bonkers?

Yeah, I mean, she should have approached the family, but she was absolutely right in what she was saying.

Team random woman. Bread is so bad for ducks.

Also I love how you’re judging her passive aggression and not minding her own business and then immediately ran home to post about it on a message board.

Presumably, she was passive-aggressively attempting to alert others to the sign that advises/instructs people not to feed the ducks.

She's correct about the white bread.

I should think she was apprehensive of the response of the family if she'd approached them. I don't know why she thought this method would be better.

Why do we say no to bread, and is there an exception?

Bread is bad for ducks and other waterfowl. Their natural diet is things like pond weed, seeds, insects, worms, small water snails and amphibians, and even crustaceans, such as crayfish.
White bread offers little in the way of nutrition. It simply acts as a filler. Whilst it may not seem harmful, the low nutritional value can lead to serious vitamin deficiencies. This is of course in extreme cases, and it is important to remember that this information is not area specific. For example, in a pond where swans and other wildfowl have become used to being fed there can also be serious consequences if we simply stop feeding them, especially in the winter. As a last resort, and if it’s not their main source of food, a bit of bread can be acceptable, particularly brown seeded bread, but certainly not mouldy bread.
In milder months, there is enough natural food to keep birds well fed. That said, many people love to take their children along to our ponds and rivers to feed the birds. Whilst it’s fine to supplement their natural diet, we need to do this wisely.

https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/keeping-our-area-clean-and-safe/say-no-to-bread-for-ducks/

She was right, but she should have just gone up to them and quietly pointed out that they wouldn't feed the ducks. I hate passive aggressive behaviour like this, especially when kids are dragged in. I also hate when people blatantly ignore rules because they think their right to feed the ducks trumps the animals' welfare.

Bread isn't good for ducks and feeding them does attract vermin which spreads diseases.
You said there was a sign stating not to feed the ducks and family not adhering to that rule.
Perhaps she was more concerned for the ducks than the family members who thought they'd ignore the health advice and feed them anyway.

Awh let's make the ducks sick cause the kids love it. She is absolutely right, how hard is it for people to get the reason that these notices are there is to protect the animals.
You can bring a bag of peas or corn to feed the ducks if you really want to feed them.

Bread can kill ducks

She went about it in a very odd way, but she was right re. ducks and bread.

I'd say the other family were a bit odd too. They'd been made aware that what they were doing was harmful to the ducks and not allowed in that park and they just carried on. If you'd been made aware you were doing something harmful, wouldn't you stop?!

On one hand I admire the family's balls for ignoring angry woman flawlessly. But for that level of indifference I bet they may not actually understand what she was saying (language barrier?)

Probably didn’t want to approach directly as she didn’t want an argument. But she was in the right. I’d be embarrassed if I was the other family

Its a nuisance when the one in the wrong is the one pointing out the rules

I suppose everyone else is too cool for rules

Maybe her child asks to feed them so she was preemptively informing her child why they can’t before the “but those people are doing it!!” whining started up

There are several weird people in this story, including the OP.

Tbf she’s right. Our local park (which has ducks) sells specific duck food which isn’t bread btw.

By any chance are you part of the random family that ignored her and are here to essentially get a yeah she’s a weirdo keep feeding the ducks food that can hurt them. (Ain’t gonna happen love) if not why have you felt the need to run to social media?

She's not wrong. Bread is bad for ducks (apparently they quite like peas though) and bread does attract rats.

The way she went about it was a bit odd though.

She’s right about the bread; it’s very bad for them. And the sign is there for a reason.

The way she went about making her point was odd and socially awkward but she was absolutely correct in what she was actually trying to convey.

I'm a big fan of this type of passive aggression. It's all round good entertainment and I've been known to partake in it occasionally myself. I've also been on the receiving end from strangers and have usually laughed and called them out on it.
The family shouldn't have been feeding the ducks bread, she's right. But they also should have laughed at her and told her to stop being such a dick making a scene. So, everyone involved was BU.

Perhaps the "nice" family should read the fecking signs or do they think they are too important?

Perhaps everyone should have been louder in saying bread can kill ducks and geese, and we all need to protect our wildlife.

Why didn't you point this out too, or are you too "nice"?

Be honest, OP, were you “the family”?

It's fine, as long as they have other sources of food, which these ones obviously do. People feed the ducks in our local park bread every day, and I have been feeding the same duck for over five years - they are all healthy.

I'd be more annoyed about the family encouraging children to feed birds bread to be honest.

https://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/cause/official-statement-bread-queens-swan-marker/

Not so clear cut though - whilst white bread isn't a great diet, in many areas in winter wild water fowl will starve if people stop feeding them. Its good to encourage people to feed other things, but in places where 'ban the bread' campaigns worked... they saw birds dying of starvation, because people simply stop feeding altogether rather than switching to feeding more appropriate foods.

I live near a swan 'sanctuary' (just an area of the river bank swans are fed and monitored) and we are encourage to feed, including bread, but also advised to feed small amounts in the water not on the path (reduces vermin) and only what they will clear up in a few seconds before offering more. This has worked well and we're no longer seeing starving ducks and swans!

Fair enough I did not know bread was harmful for ducks, maybe this family didn't either. A sign is only helpful to those that can read, maybe they couldn't or their was a language barrier, or maybe they decided they would do it regardless. I have no idea behind their thought process. According to @FestiveHackathon it's actually not as harmful as everyone seems to think.

It's more the woman's behaviour that I found weird. Why stand behind a family and indirectly shout this. Surely that could have had the potential to cause a worse reaction than just quietly approaching them and sharing her concerns?

Lol ok. Glad your ducks are ok but you have no idea about these ducks. Also why wouldn’t you feed these ducks that you love so much something that is good for them?