SLAY MOST FOWL

6 ducks killed.

Exclusive, New York Post, Tuesday, July 6, 2004, By Jeremy Olshan

Parks officials are hunt­ing a Queens quackpot who snapped the necks of
six defenseless ducks nest­ing under the Flushing Meadows boathouse.

There's no suspect yet, but officials said the senseless murders are
likely the work of a twisted mind, since there was no blood and the
birds were not killed for food.

"We'll do whatever we can to find the perpetra­tors of this foul deed,"
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "Un­fortunately, this type of
thing happens all too often."

Connie von Hundert­mark discovered the fowl play when she arrived at
Meadow Lake on Thurs­day — as she does every morning just before 6 a.m.
— to feed the ducks bagels and croissants.

"Normally, as soon as I pull up in my car and yell, `Hello babies,' the
ducks come running up to -me," she said. "But when they didn't respond I
knew something was wrong."

Hundertmark, 57, waded into the lake and under the boathouse.

"That's when I saw Beaky, Greenie and four others were dead," she said.
"This was a malicious act, done purely for the sake of seeing these
ani­mals die."

The funeral rites for the departed ducks were brief. Two Parks workers
wear­ing latex averted their eyes as they dropped the bodies into black
garbage bags.

The ducks will be anal­yzed at a nearby lab, offi­cials said.

"It's probably not caused by toxins, or disease, but we have to make
sure," a Parks employee said.

A retired flight atten­dant, Hundertmark she said has never stopped
feeding flyers — and says she never will.

"It's just that now I can't stop crying my eyes out," she said.

Returning to the scene of the crime, Hundertmark brought a buffet of
pastries and other treats for the remaining birds.

If Parks enforcers are unable to catch the fiend, Hundertmark said she
may have to take matters into her own hands.

"If I caught the lunatic who did this, I would stab him in the heart."

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