Wildlife lover urges opponents to write to politicians
Daily News, Tues Jan.25, 2000
By Heather Kok-Wright
The Daily News
A Chatham wildlife rehabilitation specialist is encouraging a youth group at Park Street United Church to continue its fight against the crow cull.
The Municipality of Chatham Kent has been trying to get rid of the approximately 160,000 birds which roost in the area. Volunteer hunters have been killing some birds in the hope of scaring them off.
So youth group members, who range in age from 12-14, invited Joanne Siddall to speak to them Sunday night and explain how crows live.
Siddall shot down the commonly held belief that the crows are killing all the song birds. She said that while crows are predators, so are other birds.
"All birds hunt each other people blame crows for taking song birds, but so do other birds," she said.
In fact, she said about eight per cent of all birds are killed by natural predators.
Siddall added studies by a professor at Cornell University, Kevin J. McGowan, show cornfields that are populated by crows tend to have a lower incidence of corn borer than fields which aren't.
"So the crows also help out our farmer friends."
The wildlife rehabilitator said the birds - who she said are the smartest of all birds - began moving to the cities because "somehow they figured out when they roost in the city there is no shotguns - except in Chatham-Kent."
"It's warmer in the city and they like the lights because they can see the great horned owls (their natural predators) coming. They figured these things out, so now we're getting a large roost of crows."
Siddall agreed with some of the youth that garbage left out on the street is part of the reason Chatham-Kent has the largest crow population in Canada. But she said a lot would improve if the city would implement a bylaw which banned garbage being set out in anything but trash cans.
One youth group member, Erik Romanec, said even if the trash remained in bags there is an easier way to keep the crows from making a mess.
"We put hot chili peppers on oun garbage and they tasted it and they never came back," he said.
Siddall also encouraged the teens to report anyone shooting the birds in the city limits to the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and to sit down and write a few letters.
"If you kids think people aren't going to listen to you, you're wrong," she said. Write to the prime minister, write to (Premier) Mike Harris, write to the Ministry of Natural Resources . . .write to the mayor and write to every member of council."
Lori Jensen, the youth group leader, said the teens will discuss their options to see what they can do to change people's minds about the crow cull. She added any action taken would be done with the permission of the teen's parents.