The Town of Hillsborough, a community of about 10,000 people on the Eno River in central North Carolina, filed a civil suit in March against Kenneth and Linda Ostrand, accusing them of feeding large groups of black vultures roosting on their property. The town said the feeding — which included deli meat and other scraps — attracted dozens of the birds, whose droppings covered sidewalks, roofs, and driveways in the historic district.
In a letter to the court, the Ostrands argued the suit should be dismissed, saying it is “based on hearsay rather than fact, and is no longer relevant.” They said they stopped feeding the animals a while ago. In early 2025, Ken Ostrand told local media that he had cut back on feeding after complaints but continued feeding two injured birds. Linda Ostrand, who previously ran a wildlife rehabilitation nonprofit called Our Wild Neighbors, declined to comment on the lawsuit at her front door in early June. “We’re pretty sick of it,” she said. She added that vultures are important for the environment.
The town enacted an ordinance prohibiting the feeding of wild animals and sent a cease-and-desist letter before filing the suit. “We hate that we have to do it, but there is not a lot else we can do to coax compliance,” said Robert Hornik Jr., the town’s longtime attorney.
Neighbors cited in the lawsuit described “a voluminous amount of noxious excrement.” Public-works crews who tried to hose down an area beneath a tree could not complete the job because the smell was so overwhelming that workers began retching. Caroline Merrill, 40, who lives across the street, said the birds thud on her roof, bounce on her children’s trampoline, and pop their toy balls. Once she saw vultures attacking a hunk of pork the Ostrands had left out. “I thought, ‘Well, it’s your driveway, not mine,’” she said. Merrill described the Ostrands as very nice people but said seeing the birds with their wings spread on their roof “looks very intimidating.”
Author Allan Gurganus, who lives near a large tree where vultures roost, said the birds “seem to argue constantly” and “greet each other at the end of a long workday with harangues.” He said he has counted up to 65 at once. During a hailstorm, the birds took shelter on his porch, leaving droppings behind. “It was a horrifying sight,” he said. “They flew away, leaving calling cards behind.”
The vulture problem in Hillsborough is part of a national trend. Hannah Partridge, who works for the National Audubon Society and studied vultures for years, said the birds are “the new urban species.” As humans build more roads, houses, restaurants, and stores, they provide the roadkill and rotting trash that vultures need. Vultures serve an ecological role as scavengers, but their droppings — large because of their size — cause nuisance. Michael Byrne, a wildlife ecology professor at the University of Missouri, said, “Vultures are big birds and have big poops.”
Communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and elsewhere have wrestled with vulture invasions in recent years. Black vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal to kill or harass them without a permit. Partridge said methods like special netting and lasers can help, but dogs and drones do not. “You can annoy them as much as you want,” she said. “But until there’s no food source, it’s probably not going to work.”
The vultures have some supporters in Hillsborough. An artist displays a small vulture sculpture she calls “Hillsborough Hooligan” in a downtown gallery. A printed sign on a home reads “Hillsborough Vultures, Nature’s Custodians.” Madeline Miller, 34, a paralegal at a law office, said she greets the vultures near the police station every morning and understands the problems, but “they’re paying a price for us living in their world also.”