Condo Owner Breaking Rules by Feeding Wildlife

MIAMI — There are several very good reasons why community associations prohibit residents and their guests from feeding the wildlife. Alligators, crocodiles, birds, iguanas, snakes, raccoons, possums, stray cats and other animals present more than just a nuisance and inconvenience; they can create dangerous, unsanitary and destructive conditions resulting in costly repercussions.

The best approach for communities is to ban feedings of any kind. The vast majority of association members will abide by such a ban, although some will refuse to comply.

If reasonable enforcement measures don’t work, condominium and homeowners’ associations can resort to legal actions to force animal feedings to stop.

Such appears to have been the case at the Boca Terrace Condominium, which has been trying to compel a unit owner to cease feeding the ducks and other wildlife in the community since June 2019. That was when the association first notified owner Lois Bleke via certified mail that her feedings of the wildlife violated the community’s governing bylaws, and she was required to cease.

That notification and subsequent enforcement measures failed to bring the feedings to a halt, so the association filed a petition for arbitration with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) in October 2019 to enforce its ban.

Bleke responded to the arbitration by indicating she had stopped feeding the ducks and other animals by the end of November 2019, but that was not the case. In January 2020, the association filed affidavits from its president and manager indicating the feedings had continued.

Bleke failed to appear at the ensuing arbitration hearings, so in June 2020, the state agency concluded there was substantial evidence she was in violation of the community’s governing bylaws. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation said she must stop all feedings, and in November 2020, ruled she must pay the association’s attorney fees and related costs of approximately $2,000.

That should have brought the entire episode to a close, but it didn’t. By March 2022, the directors sued Bleke, seeking an injunction to force her to comply with the arbitration order.

In October 2022, the two sides settled. The settlement agreement stipulated she had admitted to all the allegations against her and agreed the association would be entitled to an injunction and the payment of all additional legal fees if she continued the feedings.

Once again, this agreement was not enough to force Bleke to stop the feedings.

On Jan. 14, 2025, the association filed a second lawsuit based on the alleged breach of the agreement. The second suit seeks an injunction to force her to stop the feedings, pay the association’s legal fees and grant any further relief the court deems just.

This case is reminiscent of a 2020 ruling in Palm Beach County Circuit Court that culminated with a homeowner agreeing to pay $53,000 to settle a lawsuit by the Ibis Golf and Country Club and cease feeding vultures, alligators and other wildlife.

In that case, homeowner Irma Acosta Arya was permanently enjoined from any further feedings, which since 2016 had attracted flocks of vultures as well as raccoons, alligators and a bobcat.

The animals would vomit and defecate all over the community and neighboring properties. The judge found Arya to be in contempt of court for violating an injunction after the association presented photos allegedly showing her continued feeding of animals.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which used night-vision cameras, captured images of her nocturnal feedings of an alligator, leading to fines from the state law-enforcement agency.

In cases such as these, associations should use their own enforcement mechanisms as well as law enforcement’s. If their efforts and those of the FWC prove fruitless, they should quickly file for arbitration with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

They should also consider filing lawsuits seeking to force owners to stop their feedings and pay associations’ legal fees. Otherwise, as these cases appear to demonstrate, the feedings could become extremely problematic, including the possibility of exposing associations to legal liabilities.

Michael L. Hyman, with the South Florida law firm of Siegfried Rivera, has focused on community association law since 1970 and is based at the firm’s Coral Gables office. He is the author of the two-volume “Florida Condominium Law and Practice” and is board certified as an expert in community association law by The Florida Bar.

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