Charges dropped against Sudbury's backyard birder

Roma Lundgren, the Sudbury woman who was charged with feeding pigeons in her back yard, is as free as a bird.

Lundgren was slapped with a summons in the summer bythe city's animal control services after a neighbour complained that her bird feeders were attracting an enormous numberofpigeons. The pigeons, in turn, were leaving droppings in the neighbour's yard.

And Lundgren credits the proper identification of bird droppings asthe reasonthe charge weredismissed.

"The one picture that [her neighbours] had submitted in their letter of complaint was poop on their car," Lundgren said, "and it was seagull poop."

Once the droppings were identified, the case became shaky.

"There was no reasonable chance of obtaining a conviction, and so they were going to withdraw the charges," Lundgren said, "so that was really simple and straightforward, for us. And a great relief, I can say."

The city's animal control bylaw discourages people from feeding or keeping nuisance animals, including raccoons, bears, and pigeons, but during a recent bylaw review, the city said there was support for clearer guidelines as to the feeding of wildlife.