When aggressive crows started dive-bombing people near Thompson Park in Port Coquitlam, the residents assumed that, like last year, there was a nest nearby — that is, until they noticed the chicken heads in their backyards.
"One night, my girlfriend and I were sitting here and we saw a crow land on the trailer parked in front of my house and it's got a chicken head," said Tom, a Connaught Drive resident who didn't want his last name used. "On Thursday, I was on my way home… as I was sitting there waiting to make a right turn, a crow is flying towards me, 12 feet in the air, with a chicken head sticking out of its beak. Twenty minutes later, there was another one with a chicken head."
Tom went around the neighbourhood to see what was going on and noticed a large group of birds near the Lilydale chicken processing plant on Kingsway Avenue.
"You wouldn't have believed the amount of birds gathering there, probably three or four Sundays in a row," Tom said.
His neighbour, Colin Ernst, noticed the chicken pieces popping up in his yard nearly two months ago.
"It started with a big chicken leg with the foot, the whole thing," Ernst said. "My daughter's like, 'What's that, Dad?'"
It was an oddity that turned into an inundation, with Ernst picking up chicken bits two to three times daily so his daughters and their dog didn't get to them. He tried sneaking up on the crows and surprising them to get them to fly off, leaving the chicken behind.
"I'd put the chicken heads in the garbage and every time I had one, I made a point of getting it from them… so they wouldn't want to come here," Ernst said, though the crows left their mark by covering his fence with droppings.
"The only reason I'm really complaining is the health hazard for the kids," Ernst said.
PoCo spokesperson Pardeep Purewal confirmed the city's bylaw office has received complaints about the Lilydale plant improperly securing its chicken parts waste, leading to crows and other birds dropping chicken parts in yards near the Kingsway plant.
"Our bylaw enforcement officer has discussed the complaints with Lilydale's health and safety officer and advised him that under the city's solid waste bylaw, Lilydale is required to properly secure their waste to prevent wildlife access," Purewal wrote in an email.
Lilydale spokesperson Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard said the company is aware of the issue and the PoCo plant management team is "working with a third party to resolve the issue."
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