(WSVN) - People either love them or hate them, but neighbors say what a South Florida apartment complex is doing to get rid of ducks is repulsive. 7’s Brian Entin has our special report “Sickening Sight.”
Like so many places in South Florida, this Hialeah neighborhood has ducks. They’re lounging on fences, hanging in driveways and crossing the road.
Andres: “So, I was coming down this street…”
Andres works near this apartment complex and is used to seeing the birds.
But something caught his attention last month, so he started taking pictures: a maintenance worker with a bloody knife in his hand.
Andres: “I got out of my car. This gentleman has a nine-inch knife with blood dripping down.”
Andres rushed over, but says it was too late.
Andres: “So the duck was bleeding out. Once I got there, the duck was already dead. They had already cut his head off, so at that point, I was like, ‘This is crazy!'”
In the pictures, you see two men crouching down behind a utility box.
Andres: “Nobody should see that. Like I said, it happened in the corner, in open daylight.”
Andres called police — and was shocked to learn there was nothing they could do.
Andres: “I felt really hurt. It was very sad.”
Sad, but not necessarily against the law. Florida Fish and Wildlife considers Muscovy ducks a nuisance. It’s not illegal to capture or kill them; it just has to be done humanely.
We have seen all sorts of cruel treatment of Muscovys over the years.
A trapper tried to help a duck in Palmetto Bay after it was shot with an arrow.
Trapper: “This is an act of cruelty.”
An X-ray shows where vets removed a dart from a duck.
Eunice Sivertsen, Duck Haven: “This is Sally. She has no bottom beak at all.”
Eunice Sivertsen runs Duck Haven, a Muscovy duck rescue based out of her Margate backyard.
Her advice: instead of going after the ducks, go after their eggs. Freeze them and throw them out.
Eunice Sivertsen: “What they need to do is, they need to start collecting the eggs to cut down on the population. That’s where the problem lies.”
Andres is hoping the men he saw in Hialeah will take that advice.
Andres: “I hear it all the time in Miami. Everyone hates the ducks. But you know what? In this situation, we can’t go around killing them.”
Another option is taking the ducks to Duck Haven. Eunice asks for a donation, but takes the ducks to farms in northern Florida where, she says, they are a nuisance to no one.
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