Cops: Florida Landscaper Deliberately Drove Riding Mower Over Large Group Of Ducklings Share

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A Florida landscaper is jailed on felony animal cruelty charges for deliberately driving a large riding mower over a group of ducklings, according to court records.

Investigators allege that Jason Falbo, 25, slaughtered the ducklings as he cut grass earlier this month at a property in Palm Beach county.

According to a harrowing probable cause statement, witnesses told a sheriff’s deputy that Falbo (seen at right) drove the mower directly at a Muscovy duck and her 11 ducklings. “The lawn man then ran directly over the ducklings and body parts were scattered all over the lawn,” police reported.

Two witnesses “observed the ducklings being chopped into little pieces,” the statement notes.

After passing over the ducklings, Falbo allegedly “stopped and backed the lawn mower up and moved forward again killing more ducklings.” As neighbors ran out to stop Falbo, he allegedly ran over more ducklings and began “aiming for the mother and two remaining ducklings.”

When confronted by a witness, Falbo reportedly claimed, “They were in my path so I just kept mowing.” It was Falbo’s first day on the job, according to an owner of the lawn care company for which the alleged duckling killer worked.

“Due to eye witness testimony by three people, nine baby ducks lost their lives cruelly and viciously with extreme intent by Jason Falbo,” the probable cause statement charges.

Falbo is locked up in the Palm Beach County jail on $27,000 bail. He has been charged with separate animal cruelty counts for each of the nine ducklings killed as a result of the May 3 carnage.

In July 2013, a South Carolina motorist pleaded no contest to a mistreatment of animals charge after he intentionally ran over a female mallard duck and several ducklings with his BMW coupe. Police reported that while “all vehicular traffic stopped” while the ducks crossed a Myrtle Beach road, Robert Allen Willard, 72, “intentionally sped up and hit the mother duck and several ducklings.” Willard paid a $469 fine to settle the misdemeanor case.