Neighbors Sue Crow-Befriending Girl Over Excessive Poop

Last winter, 8-year-old Seattle resident Gabi Mann charmed the internet with the story of her friendship with her neighborhood crows. Gabi and the birds exchange tokens of affection like peanuts (which Gabi offers to the birds), and buttons and earrings (which the birds bring to Gabi). 

It turns out the neighbors aren’t so happy about this arrangement. On August 10, the families who live in the houses to the left and right of Mann’s home filed a lawsuit in state court alleging that the birds’ feces and discarded peanut shells have significantly damaged their properties, in addition to causing “inconvenience” and “emotional distress.” The suit is seeking a total of $200,000 in damages.

The two plaintiffs said they tried to resolve the dispute amicably, by asking Mann’s family to limit the feeding. Some 51 neighbors even signed a petition requesting the same thing, to no avail. Repeated complaints to the city likewise failed to deter the corvid lovers, though public health officials did require the family to elevate their feeding stations to avoid attracting rodents.

“As many as six times per day, defendants refilled and continue to refill the emptied troughs of food with peanuts and other bird foods for the seagulls, crows, and pigeons to feast upon,” the suit claims. It adds that bird droppings are constantly splattering onto houses, sidewalks, cars, and children’s play areas; that the birds squawk away at high volume; and that rats have moved into the neighborhood.

The Manns have continued to offer up bird buffets—even though, at this point, it might be better for the birds themselves if they stopped. Large-scale feeding operations can actually do more harm than good for birds, according to Steve Kress, Audubon’s vice president for bird conservation. “When you put a lot of food out, you make birds more vulnerable to disease and more vulnerable to predators, particularly in an urban situation where there are dogs and cats about,” Kress says.

(For more information on how to feed birds properly, check out these 11 tips.)

Still, Kress is sympathetic to Mann’s love of birds. “We want to encourage this little girl to stick with it and to be friendly to the birds,” he says. As a potential compromise, Kress recommends putting out feeders filled with sunflower seeds, which attract much smaller birds, like chickadees. “Those species come very close,” he says, “and will even eat out of your hand if you’re patient enough.”

Even better than giving food to birds, Kress continues, is landscaping with native plants, which creates migratory oases for them.

The good news is the neighborhood already has plenty of fertilizer to get started.