PLANTATION, Fla. – An elderly Broward County resident said he was punched in the face when he tried to stop people from removing ducks from his neighborhood.
Art Cosgrove told Local 10 News he and his wife have been feeding the ducks for years, but others in the Plantation neighborhood feel the animals are a nuisance and want them gone.
Cosgrove said he was beat up by the people removing the ducks.
“I was on the ground when they were kicking and hitting me with a stick,” he said.
The 71-year-old said he also took a right cross to the face. In video of the incident, he can be heard yelling for them to give him the ducks.
Cosgrove was hospitalized, left a bloody mess and needing staples in his head for one of his wounds.
The story really begins 22 years ago when Cosgrove saw his wife, Debbie Brinkman, who had an affinity for ducks.
“I go through 300 lbs. of birdseed a month,” he said. “She loves the ducks and I love the ducks.”
Many of those neighborhood ducks line Cosgrove’s property. The problem is that some residents call the ducks, which are not protected, a nuisance.
On Friday, people were there to remove the ducks.
“I said, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” said Cosgrove.
He said they took the ducks from his property.
He went to get them back from the trailer, but police officers told him that’s burglary.
“The police told me they were going to arrest me because I touched the cages they were in,” Cosgrove said.
Monday afternoon, Cosgrove and his wife went to the Plantation Police Department. They want the case to be revisited.
“What you would say? They are on my property. It’s not a duck story, it’s an assault story,” he said.