Syncrude alleges that ducks committed mass suicide?

It's with a sigh of relief that I've read today that the case against Syncrude in the murder of 1600 ducks at their tailings pond will stand. But, come to think of it, how does a brain work if it can even hypothetically suggest that it isn't the ducks that got killed, but the pond that got stained with the ducks that illegally landed on it?