WEST LAFAYETTE, Ohio — A military veteran is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to decide if he can defy local law and keep pet ducks that he says help relieve his post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
A state appeals court in June upheld Darin Welker's earlier conviction on a minor misdemeanor for violating a ban on keeping farm animals inside the village limits of West Lafayette, about 80 miles east of Columbus.
He says the half dozen ducks are therapeutic after he served in Iraq with the Army and was medically discharged from the Ohio National Guard.
The Chillicothe Gazette reports that an attorney for the 37-year-old Welker appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this month. Failing that, Welker says he will try to get his property removed from the village.
