Daphne Sashin

Date: Saturday, February 10, 2007       Section: LOCAL & STATE
Edition: FINAL     Page: B3
Source: Daphne Sashin, Sentinel Staff Writer

Feathers flying in dispute over man’s pet duck

A home association told Chucky’s owner he can’t keep him; a theme park may hold hope.

POINCIANA — The Pekin duckling was just learning to walk when Frankie Grillasca rescued it two years ago from a friend who bought the bird at a flea market and then decided he couldn’t care for it.

Grillasca, a retired lighting-factory manager from New York, named the duck Chucky. And since then, he has loved and cared for the bird as he has the other pets and various creatures that congregate in his backyard that overlooks the Disney Wilderness Preserve.

Until this week — when Grillasca was told Chucky had to go.

The reason: The Association of Poinciana Villages considers Chucky a “farm animal,” which means the bird isn’t allowed in the subdivision. An association official spotted Chucky during a “routine inspection” and dropped off a citation giving Grillasca a week to get rid of the duck or risk fines of $100 per day.

By week’s end, Grillasca was scrambling to find a new home for his beloved fowl, which he says always stays close to home and has never provoked complaints from neighbors.

“I don’t want to see him suffer,” said Grillasca, 63, his eyes filling with tears. “He’s like family to me.”

The duck has matured since its early days, when his biting and pinching prompted Grillasca to name it after the murderous doll Chucky in the 1988 movie Child’s Play.

Several times a day, Grillasca gives Chucky bits of sausage or a mix of corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds. In the evening, he brings the domesticated duck inside. Chucky, who doesn’t fly, spends the night in a cage beneath Grillasca’s pet Umbrella Cockatoo, Cocoa.

On Thursday afternoon, the duck waddled through Grillasca’s landscaped yard, unaware of its fate. “Look at him — so happy,” Grillasca said, watching his pet. “Who’s he bothering?”

Officials with the Poinciana Association of Villages say they feel for Grillasca but insist pet ducks don’t belong in the residential community.

“I’m sure it’s cute. So is the little goat we found,” said Jeanette Coughenour, the association’s director. “There are areas in Florida where you can have those kinds of pets. . . . This is not a farm setting. This is a residential neighborhood.”

Because Pekin ducks are not native to Florida, it’s illegal to release them in the wild, said Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Short of euthanasia, she said, Chucky’s best hope is a farm with room for a pet duck or a family with a fenced-in yard in a less restrictive community.

“I empathize with this gentleman because he just wanted to save a little duck,” Hill said. “And he can do that, but he just can’t do it the way he is now.”

By the end of the week, Grillasca was in a panic, unable to eat or sleep. None of the friends, relatives or pet farms he consulted could take a pet duck. He was convinced that Chucky also sensed something was wrong. The duck wouldn’t leave his side.

But Friday afternoon brought some good news. Officials at Gatorland, the theme park and wildlife preserve on South Orange Blossom Trail, told Grillasca they could provide temporary housing while he searches for a permanent home for his feathered companion.

Gatorland doesn’t typically get called upon to rescue ducks, but the staff will nurture Chucky as they do the attraction’s other animals, spokeswoman Michelle Harris said. The Pekin will be kept in a separate area until the park can determine he has no health problems.

“We have a beautiful pond area where he could be housed, or they may place him in the birdhouse, which . . . will allow him to have a good amount of interaction with the zookeepers, so they can keep an eye on him and make sure he’s adapting,” Harris said. “He will find very comfortable housing.”

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Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2007       Section: LOCAL & STATE
Edition: FINAL     Page: B3
Source: Daphne Sashin, Sentinel Staff Writer

Pet duck to bunk at Gatorland

The staff will help find a new home for Chucky, whose owner is forced to give up the feathered pal.

Chucky, the pet duck who is not welcome in Poinciana, moved into temporary quarters at Gatorland on Monday while the park’s staff helped the bird’s owner sort through numerous offers to adopt him.

Frankie Grillasca, 63, learned last week that pet ducks are considered “farm animals” and not allowed by his homeowners association. An inspector for the Association of Poinciana Villages spotted Chucky, a Pekin duck, during a “routine inspection” early last week and dropped off a citation giving Grillasca seven days to get rid of the duck or risk fines of $100 per day.

The staff at Gatorland agreed Friday to shelter Chucky while they helped Grillasca find a permanent home for his beloved fowl.

The duck’s story prompted more than two dozen people to call or e-mail the Orlando Sentinel with offers to adopt Chucky.

It was an emotional weekend for Grillasca. He expressed contempt for the homeowners association that wouldn’t let him keep a duck that spent most of his time puttering around the yard or splashing in a little blue plastic pool. In the evening, Grillasca would bring him inside the house, where they watched TV and the duck slept in a cage.

“They can sleep well and feel safe that Chucky is not going to be around to assault them, mug them, steal their cars, rob their homes or litter the street with garbage,” Grillasca said with sarcasm.

Their last night together, Grillasca slept on the couch next to Chucky’s cage.

Babs Morrissiey, Gatorland’s director of zoological services, volunteered to help Grillasca narrow down the list of offers and call potential families to make sure Chucky ends up with people who have experience caring for a duck.

“Chucky, as a captive-raised duck, would be a very easy mark for raccoons and cats and things that are just everywhere. He’s not used to avoiding predators,” Morrissiey said.

One promising offer came from the 16-year-old owner of a Chinese goose and Cayuga duck in Apopka. In an e-mail to the Sentinel, she promised to care for Chucky as if she “had raised him from a baby.”

The owner of a property-management company offered to send her plane from Naples to pick up Chucky. She said she had a pet Pekin that died in August and was in search of another.

Monday at Gatorland, Grillasca lifted Chucky out of his cage, rested his cheek against the duck’s downy feathers and held him to his chest. He followed Morrissiey to a pen inside the birdhouse where two green Amazon parrots perched in a tree.

“Say hello, Chucky,” Grillasca said to his pet. “Hi guys,” he said to the parrots. After a few moments, Grillasca left the pen and leaned over the railing to say goodbye.

“Bye, Chucky,” Grillasca said. He waved to the duck one last time, wiped his eyes and walked away with Morrissiey to help find his friend a new home.

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Date: Saturday, February 17, 2007     Section: LOCAL & STATE
Edition: FINAL     Page: B4
Source: Daphne Sashin, Sentinel Staff Writer

Chucky the evicted duck finds new home complete with pals

A Winter Garden family welcomes the uprooted pet. Will he become a daddy?

KISSIMMEE — Chucky, the duck who was evicted from Poinciana, found a new home Friday in Winter Garden.

Preschool teacher Amy Jennings, her 20-year-old son, Danny, and his girlfriend, Emerald Behrens, asked to take in the pet after owner Frankie Grillasca learned that his homeowners association doesn’t allow ducks or other “farm animals.”

In his new digs, Chucky will join three other ducks — a white crested Pekin, a Cayuga and a Cayuga-Pekin mix — two of whom are female, a prospect that delights Behrens.

“Hopefully . . . they will breed and have babies,” said Behrens, 18. “That would be just great.”

Behrens promised she would take good care of Chucky. The ducks share a 20-by-20-foot pen under a large tree, with two plastic kiddie pools to play in and hay-filled huts where they sleep at night. The pen has a 6-foot-tall fence to protect the birds.

Behrens often takes the ducks swimming in a koi pond that she and her boyfriend built last year on Jennings’ 1-acre lot.

Chucky, a large Pekin duck, spent the week at Gatorland while the staff helped Grillasca find a suitable home for his feathered pal. Dozens of people offered to adopt Chucky after they learned of his plight.

Meanwhile, Grillasca and his daughter, Anne Marie Grillasca of New York, were still trying to figure out if he could appeal the violation.

Grillasca arrived at Gatorland early Friday to say a final tearful goodbye to the duck, though his new owners said he was welcome to visit Chucky whenever he wants.

“He just told us how good of a duck he was and how much he was going to miss him,” Behrens said. “You could tell he obviously loves him very, very much.”

Late Friday morning, Chucky sat in a cage in the back of Jennings’ Ford Explorer, on his way to his new home.

“He seems just fine,” Behrens said. “We weren’t really worried about him. It was really Frankie, poor guy.”