Miami Lakes Neighborhood Upset Over Botched Extermination Of Ducks

MIAMI LAKES (CBS4) - Heartbreaking home video obtained by CBS4 News shows Muscovy ducks drowning in a Miami Lakes canal.

They were fed tranquilizers by an exterminator.  The idea was to sedate and capture them,  then euthanize them elsewhere. But they got away before they could be caught.

"They all went in the water and the next thing you now they were just drowning," said neighbor Cindy Boyer.  "Their heads were flopping over, they were flapping their wings all confused and crazy and just watched them lay there and drown in the water. "

Boyer was horrified.  She and her neighbors in the "Windmill Gate" neighborhood feed them every day.

"There's no life on this canal bank," said Boyer.  "We had 17 ducks here yesterday because we all watch them and count the babies and get excited, but now there's nothing."

Resident David Pagan was so disturbed, he jumped in to save them.  Pictures show several he pulled from the water still alive, but it did not good.

"The way they died," said Pagan, shaking his head,   "It was…it was…so some people they're just a nuisance, but they're God's little animals, simple as that. "

A White Ibis drown too.

Rolando Calzadilla is the exterminator.  He was upset too about how all this happened – especially after someone pointed out a child could have seen it.

"It was either the lady or the guy, when they talked about the pre-schooler, I got it. I got it," said Cazadilla,  "I just put my head down, and said I was sorry."

Calzadilla said he learned from this  to always have a canoe on hand so if ducks get away again, he can get them before they drown so they can be euthanized more humanely.

"It's not really that I did something wrong, it's that I didn't do it right," he said, "and sometimes the only thing to say is, 'I'm sorry.' And that's what I said, I'm sorry and I learned from it. "

Calzadilla is giving sensitivity  training to his employees he's also waiting to hear back from Florida wildlife officials to find out if there's going to be any fallout from the death of that ibis.