Be kind to your web-footed friends, by Lewis G. Nierman
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:
Other than a small number of dedicated wildlife rescuers, few Floridians care about
the state’s remnant population of Muscovy ducks. Misinformation and outright propaganda
from people in positions of responsibility meanwhile foster contempt and hatred for
Muscovies, who are termed “unattractive” and thereby condemned to abuse.
Muscovy ducks were brought to Florida from Central and South America more than
a century ago, to be raised for meat. Believed to have been first domesticated, as pets, by
Peruvian natives, they were imported into England as early as 1550, spreading from there to
Holland, Flanders, and France. They appear in the paintings of these nations’ 17th century
masters. The origin of their name is either in the Muscovite company which brought them
from South America, or in the name “musco duck,” by which they are known on the
Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua, where they first were found.