DUCKED IT

SeaWorld Claims Guest Hit in Face by Bird Got Species Wrong

Tens of thousands of dollars rest on the identity of a very unfortunate bird.

A woman suing SeaWorld Orlando after a bird crashed into her face on a rollercoaster could see her case fall apart after lawyers for the park claimed she got her waterfowls mixed up. Hillary Martin claimed she was hit by a duck at SeaWorld Orlando on March 24, filing a complaint in Orange County on Oct. 28. She claimed the park created a “zone of danger for bird strikes” by building the Mako rollercoaster next to a lake. She claimed “a duck flew into the path of the roller coaster and struck [her] in the face,” and said she has since suffered from a loss of earnings, disability, and permanent injury. Now, representatives for the park think they can snuff out the $50,000 claim because, they say, the bird was not a duck, but a snowy egret. “This matter does not and has never involved a duck,” the park’s attorneys alleged, in a motion filed on Nov. 19. They said the claims in the complaint “are no longer true or factual, nor are such allegations actionable against Sea World.” They added, “Florida law simply does not create legal responsibility for a wild animal’s actions, unless the premises owner has brought the wild animal into its possession, harbored the animal or actually introduced the animal to the locality.”