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Letter to the editor

Ruffled feathers could fly tonight

The council may tweak an ordinance to extend a ban on feeding wildlife 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 that 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 attendees at tonight's council meeting 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, it 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 became a believer when she opened her door to find 30 pairs of eyes staring expectantly in hopes of a meal. She checked into removal services and found they were too expensive for Kenneth City considering the number of ducks.The council decided to ban residents from feeding them anywhere, even in their yards. The idea is that if 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 duck abuse throughout the town.

According to produck forces, not only are residents killing, maiming and torturing the Muscovies, one of the town's police officers pepper-sprayed one. The female officer is the subject of an internal affairs investigation, and the Pinellas 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.

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.

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 10, 2007, 07:01:43]