Attempted duck poisoning Palm Bay, FL (US) Incident Date: Friday, Sep 30, 2005 County: Brevard Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Alleged: Donald Gerald Lauer Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Case ID: 5768 Classification: Poisoning Animal: bird (wildlife) View more cases in FL (US) Abuse was retaliation against animal's bad behavior Login to Watch this Case

A Palm Bay man who hired a trapper to remove Muscovy ducks from his yard was charged with cruelty to animals, accused of leaving anti-freeze where the ducks could get it.

Don Lauer was charged by Brevard County Animal Services and Enforcement on Tuesday, Oct 16. Neighbors on Daytona Drive have disagreed about whether the ducks are charming or should be removed as nuisances.

Lauer hired a trapper to capture and remove a dozen of the ducks from his yard, moving them to a Merritt Island farm, which is legal.

He said he'll fight the charge connected to the antifreeze, which is poisonous.

"I shoo them away," Lauer said. He said he has open antifreeze under a shelf on his patio, but doubts it was accessible to the ducks. "I'm going to fight it," he said.

He said he has also caught two ducks on his property with a net, and put them into garbage cans with lids askew so they wouldn't escape.

But he said he immediately called the trapper, who picked up one bird within an hour, and he released a second himself.

His neighbor across the road, Katherine McCoy, had been feeding the ducks on her property but agreed to stop as an experiment to see whether the ducks continue to cross the road away from their canal habitat.

"The ducks have stopped coming onto my property," Lauer said.

Another neighbor contacted animal control after seeing two ducks in Lauer's garbage cans.

"There's ways to deal with this, and that isn't one of them," the neighbor said. She said part of the charm of living on the canal is the wildlife, including the ducks.

Bob Brown, outreach officer for Brevard Animal Services, said the charge against Lauer is part of a continuing investigation. "The antifreeze was obvious and overt and an immediate hazard," he said.

Brown said it is legal to catch nuisance animals, including Muscovy ducks, on your own property, even with a net.

"But they have to be treated humanely until they are transferred to another agency," he said. "They have to follow Florida guidelines."

If convicted, Lauer could face a $200 fine for a first offense.

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Florida Today - Oct 20, 2005

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