This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

Every year in towns all across the United States, winter flocks of crows descend upon urban landscapes in search of food and safe places to roost. Some of these flocks can number into the tens of thousands, which may cause conflicts between crows and humans. Watertown, New York, has turned to brutally gunning down crows lethally to deter them from roosting in the city. 18 have already been slain, and more killing is scheduled. Join us in asking the Watertown City Council to please stop killing crows and to use humane methods to deter them instead!

Watertown, New York’s plan to eradicate crows will not solve the larger issue of crow-human conflicts in the town. There are humane methods available to deter crows from roosting in the area, which will allow residents to peacefully co-exist with these highly intelligent birds.

Non-lethal methods to abate crow-human conflicts by preventing crows from roosting in undesirable urban areas have been successfully used for years. In fact, Watertown was one of five New York cities studied over a six-year period to determine the success rate of non-lethal crow management. The results of the study concluded that non-lethal management is 100% effective. According to the study, “Urban crow roosts ranging in size from 5,000 to 63,800 crows were successfully dispersed during 2002-2007 by Wildlife Services in 5 cities in New York, using non-lethal methods."

However, crows are highly intelligent and can figure out the harassment methods used by humans to try to deter them from roosting. Over time, the birds ignore them, which indicates that multiple harassment methods must be used to be successful. Pennsylvania State University details many successful crow harassment methods.

It's not enough, however, to simply harass the birds to move them along. Areas must be made inhospitable to crows, so they avoid them in the first place, and cities must cut off food sources by securing garbage and compost bins. Using bird feeders that prohibit larger birds, like crows, from using them, and ensuring animal companions’ food sources are not left outdoors where crows can get to them, are effective methods to deter crows without killing them.

What You Can Do

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.