Time for a QUACK pint? Meet the duck who loves nothing more than a trip to the pub

Everyone needs a drinking buddy - but Barrie Hayman has found his in the unlikely form of his pet duck.

Barrie, 67, likes to pop down to his local with his pet Star, the Indian runner duck he adopted two years ago when he found him orphaned just days old.

The pair are now inseparable - Star follows Barrie to the shops and patiently waits in the entrance of the local Tesco as he gets his groceries.

And when Barrie fancies a pint at the Old Court House Inn the duck goes with him - and enjoys a sip of beer.

Barrie, from Chulmleigh, Devon, said: "He just won't leave me and so now we go everywhere together.

"I've not trained him to follow me, he just seems to like it and he is one fantastic duck - I've never known any like it before.

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"He just won't mix at all with the other ducks and became distressed when I tried to put him with them."

Grandfather Barrie added: "When I first went to the pub I asked the barman if he minded if I brought a duck in.

"He was a bit surprised but they welcomed us in and everyone has just really taken to him."

Sam Moyse, who has run the pub for the last 18 years, said: "We¹ve had many different animals here over the years, it¹s what a thatched country inn should be about.

"Everybody in the pub enjoys seeing the duck wandering round and he even preens himself in our dog bowl.

"We're a family pub so the children love it and so do a lot of the villagers. It¹s just really different and interesting. Barrie tells me it¹s the duck who drags him here."

Barrie, a former scuba diving instructor in Australia, began looking after animals at family farm attraction, Big Sheep in Abbotsham, north Devon six years ago.

He added: "Star has such a personality and attracts so much attention.Children just seem to love him. He is a bit of an exhibitionist."