For the Birds: Amendment to Wildlife Law Likely

A West Caldwell ordinance to prohibit the feeding of wildlife, specifically feral animals, was tabled Tuesday night since its broad scope would have deemed bird feeders illegal.

Municipal Attorney James Lott planned to conduct more research and confer further with the town's health officer before making a "technical amendment" that would exclude bird feeders from the ordinance that is expected to be re-introduced at the next council meeting on Aug. 17.

"We had published this ordinance, which was approved on first reading at our last meeting. Lo and behold, we found that there is a question whether or not we would be restricting the use of bird feeders through this ordinance," said Councilman Richard Otterbein, chairman of the public safety committee.

"We are doing some research right now on this with regard to whether or not we are in some violation of both state statute if we were to pass this ordinance as it is and also whether or not we need to amend this ordinance to exempt bird feeders from the ordinance."

The initial amendment to the animal control ordinance, which was introduced at the council's last meeting in July, was derived to prevent the feeding of feral cats, Lott said.

"The origin of the ordinance was designed primarily to address a number of situations that have arisen where people have been feeding feral cats," Lott said. "We drafted the ordinance, and we used the League of Municipalities recommended ordinance that prohibits the feeding of wildlife and that's pretty broadly defined."

According to the ordinance, the distribution is prohibited of "any edible material with the intention of feeding, attracting or enticing wildlife," which is defined as "all animals that are neither human or domesticated, including all feral animals." Baiting fish, however, is permitted.

In addition, "no person shall purposely or knowingly, with an intent to provide such food, feed, bait or in any manner provide access to food, to any wildlife on lands either publicly or privately owned," the ordinance states.

"No person shall purposely or knowingly leave or store any refuse, garbage, food product, pet food, salt, seed, birdseed, fruit or grain in a manner that would constitute an attractant to any wildlife," the amended ordinance continues.

Elizabeth Dean, a West Caldwell resident and nurse at Washington School, uses bird feeders at her home and school as a tool to help students learn more about nature. This amendment, she said, would prevent her from continuing to do that.

"It's way too broad. I can see if you want to limit people who feed deer, geese or feral cats," Dean told the governing body. "I can see if you are specifically looking to address those kinds of things. But reading this, you're talking about your basic backyard bird feeder would not be allowed."

However, a "technical amendment" would allow for the use of bird feeders that are at least five feet high and are properly maintained, Lott said.

According to Acting Town Administrator Jock Watkins, large amounts of seed that fall onto the ground near bird feeders often attract rodents, a fear of the health department.

"The problem is that one of the biggest sources of rodent problems are bird feeders," Watkins said. "Again, they are not planning to go out and issue people summonses for bird feeders, but if there are rodent complaints, one of the biggest contributors to rodents is bird seed that ends up on the ground."

As a result, Watkins pointed out that council may want to consider not excluding bird feeders from the ordinance.

However, Mayor Joseph Tempesta said the ordinance still needs to be more specifically defined.

"It's too broad," he said. "I'm afraid there could be other things that we haven't thought of that could get caught up in that."