Jury convicts mother duck killer

An American motorist ran over and killed a mother duck as she walked her 12 ducklings across a shopping centre, a court heard. Joshua Linhares turned his car in the direction of the birds and drove straight at the mother mallard.

A jury in New Bedford, Massachusetts, yesterday took just 15 minutes to convict the 25-year-old of animal cruelty. Assistant District Attorney T.J. Rebello told the town's district court: 'The high rate of speed he drives off in shows this was something more than an accident.'

Jurors were shown a CCTV video taken from Macy’s in the Dartmouth Mall, which captured the moment Linhares’ car struck the mother mallard duck as she crossed a car park with her ducklings. The motorist claimed he did not see the birds when he drove into the middle of a three-way intersection last June.



After striking the duck, he said he slowed down and then drove away without stopping because he panicked. 'I was nervous. I didn’t know what to do,' Linhares told the court.

But a woman shopper who saw the incident said the driver 'turned sharply' and accelerated towards the ducks. The mother mallard had been nesting for at least five years in a retention pond in Dartmouth town centre, an animal control officer said.

Prosecutors had called for Linhares to spend a year in jail, but he was sentenced to 12 months probation. The orphaned ducklings were temporarily adopted by a Westport family until they were released into the wild.

With news video.