Residents startled after trapper shoots, kills ducks in Orange County subdivision
Early Wednesday, Kim Shaw heard shots coming from a lake just outside her bedroom window. She was startled and not sure what to do.
“You hear gunshots, the first thing you do is panic,” Shaw said.
Shaw was not alone. On the other side of the lake in a residential area of Waterford Lakes in East Orange County, many others awoke to mysterious popping noises outside their homes.
“I recognized gunfire, a lot of it,” said Sue Bigsby, who looked out her window and saw a man firing from a pickup truck across the lake. Despite the early morning darkness, Bigsby said she was angry enough to go pound on the surprised man’s window and demand to know, “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m killing ducks,” the man told her. And if she was concerned for the welfare of the birds, he suggested she swim out and get them herself.
Bigsby called 911. A deputy arrived and moved through Bigsby’s side yard, gun drawn.
The deputy later determined the man was a trapper hired by the Waterford Lakes Community Association to rid the area of Muscovy ducks. Listed by the Fish and Wildlife Commission as a “nuisance bird,” by law it is permissible to kill them humanely.
“It is not illegal,” Orange County Sheriff’s Spokeswoman Jane Watrel said.
Residents like Shaw worried about the unintended consequences of someone firing his weapon repeatedly in such a heavily residential neighborhood.
“My initial reaction on the phone was what?” said the General Manager of the Waterford Lakes Community Association, Ken Zook.
According to Zook, the trapper he hired, Jason Levinson, of Animals Beware in Mount Dora, made the decision on his own to shoot at the birds. Three were killed Wednesday morning.
“We don’t want people out here with a gun shooting ducks, we don’t.” Zook said.
Zook provided photos of the 149 ducks and ducklings he said Levinson was paid $5,500 to capture and relocate to a farm in Lake County.
Residents said the Muscovy ducks had become aggressive and started nesting under people’s porches and defecating in a gazebo near the lake.
“They are messy, they are dirty, they are aggressive,” Bigsby said.
After Levinson confirmed he was the man who’d been shooting at the birds, Zook said he was fired.
When reached by phone, Levinson confirmed shooting the birds and said the early morning is the safest time to do it.
Residents disagreed and said Levinson put them in danger.
“You don’t just do that,” Shaw said. “Can you imagine someone thinking something is going on and trying to defend themselves?”