text: Thursday, May 14 2015, 07:36 PM EDT 
   
   Landscape owner defends employee charged with killing ducklings ||||| Like any normal day, Boyd Jentzsch and his son, Kai, put out food for the family of Muscovy ducks that lived outside their Wellington home. 
   
   But on May 2 as they watched out their patio door at the mother duck and her 11 ducklings peck at their food, a lawn worker plotted a different fate for the birds, according to an arrest report. 
   
   He gunned his riding lawnmower toward the ducks, which were perched on the grass near a tree in the family's yard, and swerved his blades over them, the report stated. Inside, the family of three watched and screamed at what they had just witnessed. 
   
   "We were horrified," said Jentzsch. "I couldn't believe it was happening. It was totally disgusting." 
   
   The landscaper, Jason Falbo, 24, of Royal Palm Beach, was arrested Wednesday and charged with nine counts of animal cruelty by Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. 
   
   The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Jason Scott Falbo II, 24, of Royal Palm Beach, pleaded guilty to nine felony cruelty to animals charges in Palm Beach County court, concerning the May 2 deaths of ducklings in Wellington. Jason Scott Falbo II, 24, of Royal Palm Beach, pleaded guilty to nine felony cruelty to animals charges in Palm Beach County court, concerning the May 2 deaths of ducklings in Wellington. (The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office) (The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office) 
   
   Officers were called to the family's home at about 2:30 p.m. the day the ducks died. 
   
   As Jentzsch's wife, Laura Gontchar recalls, the day started beautifully. She said Kai, 7, loves animals and grew especially fond of the ducks that would waddle up into the family's backyard. 
   
   Gontchar said the ducklings weren't more than a few days old. Meanwhile, Falbo's lawnmower hummed along the side of the house and Kai watched as his beloved ducks ate their lunch. 
   
   Then, the lawmower appeared. Jentzsch said the blades on the mower were up, lifted above the grass. In an instant the blades went down and a flurry of feathers, bones and small beaks went flying into the air. 
   
   The three bolted out the door; first Gontchar, then Kai, then Jentzsch. 
   
   "What are you doing?" Jentzsch remembers screaming, as Kai and Gontchar became more and more hysterical. "These are our friends. These are our babies, we love to feed them!" 
   
   Falbo sat on his mower, backed up and ran over the ducklings again, the family said. This time he smiled and laughed. Four ducklings managed to get away, hobbling with their mother into the lake, but two drowned. Out of the 11 ducklings, only two survived, according to the report. 
   
   "What are you doing to my ducks?" Kai wailed, his father remembers. "Why are you laughing?" 
   
   The boy, in tears, ran from the backyard and back into his house. Jentzsch and his wife were stunned. 
   
   "It was one of the most emotional things I've ever seen," Jentzsch said. "It was just — wow." 
   
   Jentzsch called the police and the county's Animal Care and Control, who found the remains of the birds. 
   
   When the officials were gone, the family sat inside and cried. Kai grabbed his iPad and started watching cartoons. 
   
   "I don't want to hear about it," he told his dad. "I'm too upset." 
   
   Nearly two weeks later, the family is still reeling from witnessing the traumatic event. On his way to the school bus stop Thursday, Kai asked Jentzsch whether he thought more ducks would come and if they could take care of them so he could remember what it felt like. 
   
   It's hard for the couple to explain to Kai why this happened, they said. 
   
   "He asked me, 'Is everybody out there like this?'" Jentzsch said. 
   
   Officers said they were able to make contact with Falbo about the attack a few hours after the incident occurred. They wrote in the report that the nine baby ducks lost their lives "cruelly and viciously with extreme intent." 
   
   Records show Falbo was arrested in March for domestic battery and aggravated child abuse after he was accused of beating his girlfriend. 
   
   He is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on $27,000 bail on the animal cruelty charges. 
   
   Gontchar said she is still emotional from what she and her family saw, but she and her husband are trying to use this experience as an opportunity to teach their son about the value of life and how cruel some people can be. 
   
   "A person came and ruined the lives of those birds," she said. "We talked about it, going through death and questions like that, and how things need to be done when he sees these cruel things happen. I think that was a very powerful and hurtful experience for him to see." 
   
   kjacobson@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6547 or Twitter @katejacobson
target: – A Florida landscaper faces prison time after he mowed down a family of ducklings. Jason Falbo, 24, claims it was unintentional, but a couple and their young son who watched the scene unfold aren't buying it, and, so far, neither are police, reports the Palm Beach Post. It happened in Wellington, as Falbo mowed the back yard of Boyd Jentzsch and Laura Gontchar. The husband and wife had put food out for the ducklings and were watching with their 7-year-old son as the mother duck led them out of a lake to feed. That's when they say Falbo deliberately headed for the ducks on his riding mower, ran them over, and hit them again in reverse. Seven died instantly, and two more made it back to the water and drowned, say police. Only the mother and two ducklings survived. "We were horrified," Jentzsch tells the Sun Sentinel. He, his wife, and their son, Kai, ran after Falbo as he neared the ducks screaming for him to stop, to no avail. The family says Falbo was laughing on his second pass over the ducks. They booted him from the property and called animal control, and Falbo was charged with nine counts of animal cruelty. His employer tells CBS12 that Falbo is "kind-hearted" and wouldn't have run over the ducks on purpose. He says Falbo didn't see them in the tall grass and backed up after the first pass only because he wanted to avoid hitting more ducks in front of him. He is being held on $27,000 bond. (Elsewhere in Florida, a woman faces animal cruelty charges over goldfish.)