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Letter to the editor

Duck lovers, foes on collision course

The council may vote to extend a wildlife-feeding ban to private property.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published October 10, 2007

KENNETH CITY- One item on the agenda for tonight's council meeting has the potential to make feathers fly - duck feathers, that is.

At issue is the tweaking of an ordinance banning the feeding of wildlife on public property. A proposed change would prevent Kenneth City residents from feeding wildlife when it wanders onto private property.

The change is directed at Muscovy ducks, which, some say, are overrunning the town because some residents feed them.

On one side of the battle are duck lovers who find pleasure in tossing tidbits to the ducks. On the other side are those who may not be active duck haters but are down on ducks.

For them, the birds destroy yards and gardens and indiscriminately deposit droppings everywhere - all done with a bad personality.

And considering the number of calls to Town Hall, the issue seems to have hatched into a major concern. Kenneth City Mayor Muriel Whitman said the town is getting plenty of calls "from both sides."

She advised that attendees at tonight's council meeting might want to be careful where they sit because "we're probably going to have the bride's side and the groom's side."

On the surface, she said, the issue seems "kind of petty. There should be more interesting things they could be doing. ... It should prove interesting."

The duck dispute began earlier this year when some Kenneth City residents complained about the interlopers and asked that they be taken away.

Whitman soon became a believer when she opened her door one morning to find 30 pairs of eyes staring expectantly in hopes of a free breakfast. She checked into duck removal services and found they were too expensive for Kenneth City considering the number of ducks involved.

Faced with having to find another solution, the council decided to pass a rule banning residents from feeding them anywhere, even in their front yards. The idea is that if the free food disappears, so will the ducks.

The proposal was on the agenda at last month's council meeting but it was tabled after duck lovers showed up not only to oppose the ordinance, but to hurl accusations about wholesale duck abuse throughout the town.

According to the produck forces, not only are town residents killing, maiming and otherwise injuring and torturing the Muscovies, one of the town's police officers pepper-sprayed one just for the fun of it.

The female officer is the subject of an internal affairs investigation over the allegations, and the Pinellas County SPCA has called the Police Department to find out if the accusation is true.

The duck lovers' objections surprised the council, Whitman said, because "before, we never heard from the ones who liked them."

But everyone has to be reasonable, she said. Most folks who are complaining aren't really anti-Muscovy. They "just want us to relocate them so they could get their yards back and their sidewalks bleached."

The council may have to look no further than PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is generally against the feeding of wild animals, said Stephanie Boyles, a PETA wildlife biologist.

The reasons are many: Feeding takes away the natural fear the animals have for humans and the diet may not be what the animal ideally needs, just to name two.

But "once those animals become dependent on humans for food, you can't just stop feeding them immediately because they wander around the neighborhood looking for food," Boyles said.

"The better thing to do... is to establish designated feeding areas and have one person or one group in the community be the designated (feeder)."

Not only do the designated feeders have to provide food for the ducks every day, they must also either gather the eggs or give the critters oral contraceptives.

Eventually the problem goes away permanently. In the meantime, the ducks stop wandering because they will stay where they're being fed.

"This is a much better way to solve the problems," Boyles said. "You're taking people who used to be problem feeders and having them be part of the solution."

Whitman said that was an interesting idea that she would keep in mind. The problem, she said, is that Kenneth City has no place to "corral" them. "Every place you go is houses," she said.

Fast Facts:

If you go

The Kenneth City Town Council meets at 7:30 tonight at the Community Hall, 4600 58th St. N. The council is scheduled to consider granting tentative approval to an ordinance banning the feeding of wild animals on private property. If it passes tonight, a final reading will be scheduled, likely for next month. The meeting is open to the public.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 22:02:31]