WESTFIELD – The Stanley Park community is “up in arms” after the brutal killing of a duck which had been adopted by park workers and patrons of the park.
City police report that the security supervisor, Jack Godfrey, called on Saturday morning to report the killing of the duck, named Ozzie by park workers.
Officer Terry Manos responded and reports that he was told that the day before a security officer had been approached by a jogger who said that she had seen a boy who had killed a duck.
The woman told the park ranger that she saw four teens, two boys and two girls, watching something happening inside the covered bridge and the duck pond and heard one of the boys says “He’s kicking the (scatological reference deleted) out of it.”
The joggers said that when she approached she saw another teen-aged boy kicking a bird inside the bridge.
When Manos spoke with the woman she told him that she ran into the boy at full speed to push him away from his prey and said that she was so angry that she kept bumping into him while yelling at him.
The boy ran away, she said, and she ran to look for someone to report the incident to.
The woman said that she ran back to the bridge when she couldn’t find a ranger and spoke with the four teen spectators, who said that they did not know the suspect but had seen him stomping Ozzie.
She said that she later found a park employee and reported the attack.
Investigating security officers found Ozzie dead. A park spokesman said that the duck was given a proper burial.
A park volunteer, Donna Herman, said that she had found the Muscovy duck in a parking lot at the park about three years ago and it joined the flock of fowl at the park. Herman said that thought he was a goose and stayed with flock that lives in the park
Herman said that Ozzie was injured by a visiting dog and park volunteers fed it through that winter. She said that after Ozzie learned where to go for grain he never left the park.
Bob McLean, the director of Stanley Park, said this morning that some callers have offered a reward to encourage identification of the suspect.”The community itself is up in arms,” he said.
He also said that park officials are also hoping to gather funds to install a web camera in the area which can be linked to the park’s web site so that, not only could park security officers monitor the area, visitors to the web site would also be able to view the pond area.
