ALAN R.

PNAKOVICH
416 Mallard Road
Weston Florida
(954) 385 3209
Pnakovich@myacc.net 

May 17, 2010

Office of Governor Charlie Crist

State of Florida
PL-05 The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Dear Governor Crist,

As a resident of South Florida, I have enjoyed the vast amount of natural beauty in many
of Florida’s wildlife preserves, parks, and even in my own neighborhood. This is an amazing
opportunity for childhood enjoyment. A local pond might have fish, tadpoles, turtles, and even
an alligator (hopefully seeing just its eyes above the water), is largely a result of Florida’s
environmental regulations, which have protected Florida’s very delicate and unique ecosystem.
These laws have already saved many endangered species, such as the American Alligator. In
addition to these, there is one type of animal that has captured my heart to where I even regard
them as my pets, Muscovy Ducks.
The purpose in my writing to you is that I believe these animals, although not an
“endangered species,” now really need some form of law or regulation to protect them. I can
think of at least three reasons why this is something important for you to consider: (1) these
beautiful, cute looking birds act as attractions for tourists, (2) they continually fascinate residents
like me, and (3) they are now being subject to an extreme amount of cruelty. For these and other
reasons, I believe that Muscovy Ducks should be protected by the State to ensure their well
being, so that tourists and residents can continue to truly experience the wonders of Florida. I
hope after reading this you will try to pass a Muscovy Duck protection law to help this beautiful
animal for the benefit of Florida.
Observing Muscovy Ducks are a common joy that all tourists seem to appreciate, and
tourism is the largest industry in Florida. When family members come to my house, one thing
that always gains their attention is the Muscovy ducks that I feed. They really enjoy watching it
and even name some of the ducks, like one that comes to my house named Shadow. Others will
watch me feed them and ask questions about them in fascination. One thing that all of my
relatives who have come to South Florida have in common is that they all like the Muscovys. In
addition to the amount of interest Muscovy ducks generate in my family, I’ve seen many other
tourists and local residents come out like me with bread or seed to feed them. When tourists that
I see are not feeding Muscovys, they often watch them walk, swim, or fly, and that alone is
enough to show how these friendly birds has enriched the tourist experience here. For people
who live in the North, Muscovy Ducks are a new and interesting sight. Tourists love to get the
ducks to eat out of their hands, and most of the ducks will do this for something like dry bread or
goldfish crackers in a heartbeat. For tourists, Muscovy Ducks might be that final “nice touch,” a
lasting memory of Florida.
My second reason, the most important to me, is that Muscovy Ducks have a positive
effect on most residents of Florida. For example, my grandparents sit in front of our big glass
windows every afternoon to watch them eat in our patio and follow the duckling’s growth over
time. My grandparents’ caretaker, during her breaks, watches the ducks with great interest and
can identify every one of them and even their names. She knows each of their individual
characteristics almost as well as my dad and I do. The ducks have also had a major impact on
my mom, who used to fear and dislike interacting with all animals. She now likes two ducks in
particular. One that she named Sisii, was always being bullied by the other ducks. After my
mom saw this, she always let Sisii into our patio, and would object to insults that I tossed at Sisii
now and then (who is not the most intelligent duck to say the least). Sisii is no longer picked on
by other ducks and has even gained the confidence to fight back. The second duck that affected
my mom, Mr. Whiteman, was a duck that my dad and I felt we had to take in after finding him
horribly wounded and barely able to walk or fly, although he still could swim normally. After
seeing how painful each step was for him, my mom allowed Mr. Whiteman to stay in our patio
day and night, which really shocked my dad and me. To this day, Mr. Whiteman still sleeps in
our patio, swims in our pool, and spends the daytime in our backyard eating the vegetation he
needs for his diet. My dad now takes care of the ducks just like I do, and is also very fascinated
by them. I was the one most affected though since, for the first time in my life, I now have a pet
living and sleeping at my house, as well as other animals that visit me every day and fill the void
from not having a pet. Besides my family, a lot of my friends also name some of the ducks and
have bonded with them. The ducks have had a real impact on all of our lives.

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 The most important reason for enacting a Muscovy Duck protection law is that it would
have a major positive effect on lives of the ducks. Muscovy Ducks have had a large amount of
cruelty inflicted on them that continues to this day. A quote from an article of August 13, 2009
in the Sun-Sentinel best exemplifies this: “Patricia Taylor can't talk about Albert without
crying. For the past seven years, she has treated the Muscovy duck and his siblings as pets after
raising them as hatchlings. A neighbor at her Pebble Springs condo handed them over as eggs
after placing them briefly in a freezer. Now Albert is gone, along with more than 40 members of
his colony. Taylor, 74, says the field behind her home became the scene of a "great loss" on
Friday, when two trappers used bread to lure dozens of ducks, then broke their wings and
stashed them in cages in the back of a gold pickup.” Besides this, I personally saw one of my
neighbors cruelly beating a duck, who hadn’t even made “droppings” on his driveway or
anything, hitting it with a hockey stick over and over again until luckily it escaped.
To my dismay, a Federal law that just went into effect on March 31st will allow people to
hunt or trap Muscovy Ducks to eradicate them from every state except for Texas. They will be
allowed to set up traps or shoot them as a means of “controlling” their population, which
previously required a formal permit. When New Orleans was hit with hurricane Katrina and the
city flooded, cats there (unlike the dogs) went completely wild (or feral) and some even attacked
humans. In a humane response, volunteers neutered male cats, rather than killing them to control
their population. However, Muscovy Ducks can now be cruelly killed, even though they are not
aggressive and the only property damage they cause (if you can call it that) is by their droppings.
Although Muscovy Ducks are not a native species, they are a friendly species that often become
like a neighborhood’s “pets,” and my next-door neighbor is another duck lover and feeder.
Therefore, this letter asks you to not look at Muscovys merely as a species in an environment,
but also as innocent animal friends that approach humans thinking we are friendly and would
never hurt people, at most following them. By not enacting some protective regulation, you will
not just be allowing the eradication of a species; you will be permitting their inhumane slaughter.
Imagine this Governor, if you would be so kind. A Muscovy Duck is waking peacefully
by a pond and then it sees a human. It runs to the human in almost complete trust hoping for the
typical “handout.” Then the human lifts a gun. The Muscovy looks at the gun nervously, since
ducks fear anything a human holds, probably from to being hit a few times. However, the duck
still approaches the human and looks up and stares innocently at the person. The human then

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aims the gun and the shoots the Muscovy. Due to poor aim, the duck, wounded, confused, and in
deep pain, slowly limps to the pond with its very last breath all covered in blood. The human
then aims the gun one last time and fires, ending the poor duck’s life. The Muscovy’s chance at
life had been cruelly taken away. This is what would happen without a Muscovy Duck
protection law in Florida, because of the Federal law recently passed. As the Governor of
Florida, only you can prevent this scenario from becoming a reality by enacting a Muscovy Duck
protection law.
To sum up, a Muscovy Duck law would be an appropriate response by Florida to the
recent harmful Federal law, since Muscovys have a positive effect on both tourists and residents,
and these innocent creatures really need protection from the kind of cruelty that humans are so
capable and willing to inflict on them. As Governor, please try to persuade the Florida
legislative branch to enact such a law. If not, hunters and trappers might eventually kill every
Muscovy Duck in the State of Florida, and what a real tragedy and loss that would be for us all.

Thank you very much for considering this proposal.

Sincerely yours,

Alan Pnakovich
A Loyal Resident of The State of Florida

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