Chatham city council, along with Mayor Randy Hope, were exploring the option of having a crow cull. It’s not the first time. In January of 2000 they actually did have a crow cull in Chatham. Hundreds if not thousands of crows were shot in the middle of the city of Chatham. People found dead crows in their yards. They killed them at night with a police car present to stop animal activists from intervening. Then mayor Bill Erickson was in power and his brother Richard Erickson organized the crow slaughter and even had competitions as to who could shoot the largest crow.
This time around, 16 years later, Mayor Randy Hope was quoted as saying “We’re going to shoot them [crows] out of the sky”.
Some car dealerships are in favor of a crow cull because their cars get a little dirty from the crows.
I attended the December Chatham council meeting where several animal activists spoke out against a crow cull, giving council something to think about.
It was stated by one of the councillors that there had been an attempt to contact hunting groups about a crow cull but they were unable to reach anyone so close to Christmas. Councillor Van Damme was supportive of a crow cull. Councillor Thompson was against it, saying it would create too much bad publicity for Chatham. Another option was discussed, this being the acquisition by Chatham of a sonic device, much like the ones used at airports to move birds out of an area. Council was considering buying a smaller one which could be moved from one location to another. Some councillors were saying that it was too late (in December) to organize a crow cull. (Keep in mind that the crow cull in 2000 was done in January). In any case, at the December council meeting, it was decided to postpone further discussion about the crows until the January council meeting.
I also attended the January Chatham council meeting. The crow situation was not on the agenda. I met two councillors on their break in the hall and asked them about the crow issue (one of them was councillor Derek Robertson) and they said that the crow cull issue would not be visited in the foreseeable future.
We will keep an eye out to see what happens.
Katherine
Chatham supporter