City eats crow over misunderstanding with resident

The City of Kamloops newsletter Kamloops Insider, just out, includes another in its Blunders and Wonders confessional series. This one is about the recent case of the Valleyview resident who got in hot water with the City over feeding crows. Read the full newsletter here.

The crows weren’t the only ones who learned from Toby Jackson’s experiment in animal behaviour. The City got a bit of a lesson, too.

Jackson was intrigued by a TV program that showed crows are intelligent and he began feeding the corvids peanuts near his Sahali home to see if they would recognize him. Unfortunately, the mess and noise that came with the birds irked a neighbour, who complained to City bylaws. City community safety and enforcement manager Jon Wilson said the situation went further a-fowl than it should have.

The bylaw relating to attracting birds goes back five years, when a man was feeding hundreds of pigeons in his back yard. Several neighbours complained about the droppings and nuisance, which eventually resulted in a bylaw around enticing animals when it creates a nuisance to other properties. While Jackson’s case was similar, there weren’t hundreds of birds involved and the issue wasn’t about feeding the crows on his property.

“His understanding was if he wasn’t feeding the birds on his property, it wasn’t a problem. He would start feeding them when he started on his walk and as he went along. He felt he wasn’t doing anything wrong and that it was okay if it wasn’t on his property. After repeated complaints and his refusal to stop, we issued a $100 fine. Our policy is if you’ve been given a fine and there continues to be non-compliance, there’s an increase. So he was eventually given two fines,” said Wilson.

Then the issue hit the media and moved up the chain of command to Wilson’s desk. He met with Jackson and discovered he’d been misinformed. Wilson made it clear that Jackson didn’t have to stop feeding the birds, but had to do so in a way that wasn’t bothering the neighbours. Jackson found another way to enjoy the crows and the City dropped his fines.

“I contacted him and said the City wasn’t interested in penalizing anyone over this. We wanted the situation resolved. It was causing a nuisance,” said Wilson. “I asked if we could find a compromise? I asked him to feed the crows away from the houses on the far end of his walks. But if the birds followed him back to his property, I’d have to ask him to stop. We couldn’t create a nuisance for the neighbours. So far, things have been working out well.”

Residents should be aware that this bylaw is not intended to stop citizens from using birdfeeders and enjoying birds around their property or in public areas, it only applies to situations where the attracting of birds or wildlife is creating a nuisance for other properties nearby.