Neighbors suing Seattle family for feeding crows

Neighbors are suing the Mann family in Seattle because they won’t stop feeding a murder of crows.

Gabbi Mann, 8, was featured in a BBC Magazine article about her relationship with the crows. The young girl, who lives in Portage Bay with her parents, would feed them each day, and in return, the birds would leave her gifts. The heartwarming tale went viral.

Now, neighbors of the crow-loving Manns are suing the family over what they consider a major nuisance in the neighborhood, the Seattle PI reports.

Frank Buono is not one of those neighbors, but he is one that has been complaining about the birds.

“The intensity of the amount of feeding has caused a real problem for the neighbors here,” Buono told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “The bird poop that is being dropped on our houses, on our windows, gutters, sidewalks cars, because they feed and then they come over on the neighbors’ houses and eat it, or they roost on our houses or in our yards waiting to be fed and then swarm in there.”

Neighbors have tried to talk with the Manns, according to Buono. There was even a petition with 50 signatures, asking for the crow feeding to stop. But no solution has been found.

“I sent her a letter in November of 2013 so this has been going on for almost two years and it’s actually intensified in the last few months with her just really feeding them almost all around the clock,” Buono said, noting that he has also sent his neighbor bills ranging from $500-600 for cleaning his windows and roof soiled by the crows, but has not received a response.

“She has not responded and will not respond and is hardly ever seen and the feeding goes on and on and on, in the back yard and I think it’s the little daughter that goes out and puts the food out,” Buono said.

“Now she has a sign out that she belongs to the national federation of bird, I don’t know, bird sanctuary or something,” he said.

Buono doesn’t think that the Manns care to hear his or his neighbors’ concerns.

“I think that they just don’t care. They just want to do what they want to do,” he said.

“At one time, when she used to come out of the house, she would get in her car with food and drive up the street and throw the food out and the food would go on the street and the crows would follow her for a block or two,” Buono said.

The neighbor also said he is doubtful about the story of crows leaving the young girl gifts.

“I don’t know too much about crows, but I think that this trinket deal is just things that they find,” Buono said. “They probably pick them up and when feeding time comes they fly to the destination they are being fed, and they just drop whatever is in their mouth. It’s not a gift.”