ISLAND WALK: THE KILLING FIELD?

Dec. 16, 2020: Despite mass resident protests, and in the absence of agreeing to "defer" by formal vote, the Island Walk Board of Directors' default plan of record remains to KILL THE MUSCOVY DUCKS, as they voted to do last week. 

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASAP SO THAT TOGETHER WE CAN SAVE THE REMAINING MUSCOVY DUCKS LIVING WITHIN OUR BEAUTIFUL NATURE-LOVING COMMUNITY OF ISLAND WALK.  Thank you.

Island Walk is a 1,865 home residential community located off of Vanderbilt Beach Road in Naples, Florida.  We would normally be coexisting peacefully. But due to current events, Island Walk has become quite the conflicted community.

Island Walk enjoys 170 acres of lake land surrounded by 18.5 miles of shoreline. Various plants and animals coexist at peace with one another within these gorgeous lakes, the least of which are a wide variety of aquatic ducks. It is the beautiful Muscovy type that are posing the problem. The Lakes Committee has introduced a plan to hire “Jake the Trapper” to hunt, trap, remove, then slaughter the Muscovies. Jake would be paid $6,000 of resident funds for this terrible and violent act of cowardice, which of course, is a non-sustainable solution because Muscovy ducks have the ability to fly from place to place and the whole bloody (and pricey) business will have been for nothing. Muscovy ducks will simply repopulate back to Island Walk. An alternative solution would be to oil the eggs in order to prevent reproduction. Another possibility is to deploy non-toxic duck repellent around suspect areas. Additionally, residents should be more strictly forbidden from feeding any and all wildlife.

Florida law has legalized “humane” killing of invasive species (humane, but unsupervised killing, so how does that work??).  It is interesting that according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Muscovy ducks are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty act, yet a control order issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supersedes that protection. And since the Fish & Wildlife departments exist to regulate and collect funds for the killing of wild animals mainly for sport, Muscovy Ducks are relegated to victims of money and politics. This is unfair and extremely unfortunate for the ducks, to say the least. 

The Island Walk residents’ counter-arguments made to the Lakes Committee and BOD include the following:

• Muscovies do not compromise coexisting animal life, nor do they deposit excessive defecation on the walkways nor lakes. 
  • Any poop left on the walkways, bridges and in the lakes are left by many ducks, not just the Muscovy type.
• They add value by feeding off of nuisance bugs, slugs, spiders, and mosquitos.
• They are blamed for eating newly planted littorals, though Mallards and all other ducks also eat such plant life. Why are Muscovy ducks soley blamed?!
• They add beauty to our natural environment, which most of us value and appreciate.
• They are non-violent and peaceable animals, only protecting themselves from predation if necessary - just as all other ducks/animals would.
• They have not been a cited as source of disease to other animals or humans here (though Salmonella bacteria typically live in ALL animal and human intestines and are shed through feces).

And whether it is dirt, poop, mold, or algae, the cleaning crew is hired and paid to clean those areas. The residents pay fees each and every quarter for such cleaning services. And the Muscovy ducks should not be hunted and slaughtered for the poop left by all duck species.

To eradicate them by expensive and redundant bloody slaughter is a cruel, non-sustainable and wasteful response to a non-existent issue!  IT SIMPLY SHOULD NOT BE DONE!!!

The decision to have the Muscovies killed is an cruel and impulsive one, not well though-out by Lakes Committee and the Board. If the Lakes Committee and BOD insist on this needless eradication, then they should come up with holistic approaches to doing so and altogether forgo the killing methodology that they have devised.

Please sign.  Many thanks in advance for your thoughtful compassion! 

 

Some interesting facts about Muscovy ducks:

• Muscovy ducks do not quack. The females have a soft trilling vocalization while the males have a low hushed call.
• Muscovy ducks communicate with one another by wagging their tails and raising and lowering their heads at one another..
• The Muscovy duck wingspan, at 4.5' - 5' is nearly as large as the Great Egret (5.6'). They are a lovely sight as they glide over our beautiful lakes.
• Muscovy ducks are gentle, non-aggressive creatures and only defend themselves from predators if attacked.
• Muscovy ducks are social birds that love company of other muscovies and integrate well with other ducks.
• http://arff.org/muscovy