Jailed For Feeding Ducks? 80-Year-Old ‘Bird Lady’ Arrested at Local Pond
Claire Butcher, an 80-year-old woman known as “bird lady,” has been feeding the birds at Goldfish Ponds in Lynn, Massachusetts, for 45-years. But Lynn officials have finally had enough of “bird lady’s” bread giving ways. Butcher was arrested and could face up to 30-days in jail for feeding ducks.
CBS reports that the trouble began a few years ago when city officials complained about Butcher’s bird feeding, saying that it caused a problem with animal feces and was starting to attract rats. The city sought an injunction and eventually Butcher who agreed to stop feeding the ducks.
But Lynn officials say that Butcher repeatedly ignored the deal, which included a No Trespass Order, and despite the fact that she was fined several times, Butcher continued to feed the ducks.
The fines weren’t getting through to Butcher so the city decided to launch a criminal complaint. On Wednesday, a court ruled that Butcher should face criminal charges for violating the No Trespass Order and the city’s ban on feeding wildlife.
Vincent Phelan, an attorney for the city, said:
“The only thing we wish to do is have her stop. It is a clear public safety issue at this time and the city has had enough.
Butcher hasn’t been deterred by fines or complains, and she isn’t sure that jail time will stop her from feeding the ducks either. Butcher said:
“The animals in the park do not belong to the city of Lynn, they belong to God… I guess Lynn has nothing else to do besides chase an 80 year old woman down the street for feeding ducks. I don’t know (if I’ll stop feeding the ducks). I’m going to think about it.”
Do you think Claire Butcher should be allowed to keep feeding the ducks?
Tags : bird lady, claire butcher, feeding animals, jail for feeding ducks, jailed for feeding ducks
Posted: December 9, 2011
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Dec 9, 2011
Leave the old woman alone and check your own bathrooms for fecal material. You people are nuts.
Dec 9, 2011
If she quits feeding them how do they get fed? Is there some sort of compromise that can be set up? She's worried about the ducks. Can the city be certain that if she quits feeding the ducks the rats will go away?
Dec 9, 2011
you do the crime you do the T-
WAIT SHE DIDn't COMMIT A CrimE?
Dec 9, 2011
Leave her alone. It will cost more to prosecute & jail her than it will to clean up any mess she's causing. What a bunch of idiots.
Dec 9, 2011
Build a pond on her property and move ducks. Feed on. Some city officials just want to flex their muscles and pick on an old woman. Go pick on real criminals like drug dealers and rapist.
Dec 9, 2011
Give her the chair.
Dec 9, 2011
This is a perennial problem, with godless apparatchiks casting about for ways to justify their sinecures. Evil 80-year-old lady, trying to destroy a local government's absolute control over everything. Why don't the bureaucrats go about their business, eradicating every reference to God from the public domain, and let grandma feed some ducks, extracting a tiny piece of joy on her way to a place far better than this insane, Orwellian world in which we're stuck.
Dec 9, 2011
She did commit a crime, as silly as it is. She agreed to stop, and didn't. I know it seems hard for people comprehend, but the birds will find food, just like they have for MILLIONS of years. They are not in cages, so they can find their own food. Outside food places across the country have the same rule. If you feed the birds, they keep coming and poop all over everything, creating a health risk. Again, it seems silly, but rules are there for a reason.
Dec 9, 2011
Must be a joke, now she can write a book and do talk shows , Bravo!
Dec 9, 2011
What a bunch of idiots in that town! If that's the biggest problem they have in that town, they are blessed. They need to get a life and worry about real problems and leave the old ladies and the birds alone. She should give the city the bird!
Dec 9, 2011
If the city really wanted to stop her they could just remove the ducks.
Dec 9, 2011
Take the jerks who are bitching and shove the duck food up there ass. Quack, Quack.
Dec 9, 2011
hey grammy…whatcha locked up for? "feeding ducks"…. oh…. :/ umm..that doesn't even SOUND right..please! find something better to do!
Dec 9, 2011
With all the crime in Lynn, "Lynn, Lynn the city of Sin, you never come back the way you went in," they are worried about this old lady? Law Enforcement is a bunch of Pu@#%$ies afraid of the real violent criminals. I guess I can play the white card on this one, I'm a straight forward African American and I can see what their doing to this poor old white lady!
Dec 9, 2011
you really don't get it, do you carol?
Dec 9, 2011
Tax dollars hard at work once again! Heaven forbid old ladies feeding birds.. What is the world coming to? She be out pepper spraying someone to save a dollar.
Dec 9, 2011
Ever heard of dementia? It is common among humans of that age.
Dec 9, 2011
We should all give the city the bird for her!! That's outrages to treat her that way.!!
Dec 9, 2011
YES, she should be allowed to feed the ducks. How stupid can this town be. I agree with Mike Honcho. Stupid town! Leave her alone, let her enjoy her last few years.
Dec 9, 2011
If this weren't such a sad editorial on modern goverment it would be funny.
Dec 9, 2011
You don't communicate very well. If you mean, I don't understand why this woman needs to be arrested, you're wrong. I get the concept of tyranny, I simply disagree with its application. YOU don't get the idea of just and proper priorities, do you?
Dec 9, 2011
hahahahahahahahahahahaha i hate to see what happens when she passes out candy on trick or treat night
Dec 9, 2011
This poor lady, she has been feeding the ducks longer than the cops have probably been alive! Don't we have bigger problems in this world besides duck shit?
Dec 9, 2011
Leave her alone. People have been feeding ducks for years all over this country. I'm sure they have BETTER things they could be spending their time doing that harrassing an 80 year old lady. LEAVE her ALONE!
Dec 9, 2011
1.) Feeding ducks attracts rats, pests and predators that kill ducks and endanger humans.
2.) Rotting food pollutes the water and breeds deadly diseases and parasites…
• A single outbreak of Duck Virus Enteritis (caused by artificial feeding).
kills all of the ducks.
• Uneaten food quickly forms a deadly mold called Aspergillus;.
fatal to ducks without early diagnosis and expensive treatment.
• Avian Botulism (caused by artificial feeding).
kills entire waterfowl populations and hospitalizes people.
• Artificially fed ducks emit a parasite causing a condition.
in humans called Swimmer's Itch.
3.) Ducks defacate at the site of scattered food or bread, bacteria in feces creates much higher risks for illness or disease.
4.) Most waterfowl die-offs in the past 10 years have been attributed to artificial feeding.
5.) Food waste bobbing on the water's edge is ugly.
6.) Ducks that are overfed create dangerous amounts of waste that harms fish and other animals living in ponds.
She needs some information on why she should not feed the ducks….and an invitation/pass to zoo to volunteer with animals there.
Dec 10, 2011
What dum dums…do officers not realize if they put her in jail for what shouldn't even be a crime that it could KILL her? That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Dec 10, 2011
I have the same problem with a 97 yr. old lady. I tell her Not to throw food out into her Yard for the birds! I tell her she will only get rodents and raccoons. Her answer is, then who will feed the birds in the winter? ANother neighbor used to throw so much bread out in front, and our cars were full of so much splat every day! We talked to him though and, then we moved anyway.
I took my grandchildren to a park where this was going on, lots of ducks, and geese, and to our demise and the ruination of a great day of kite flying in the park, our sneakers were packed full of large stinking geese and duck turd. You can't see it, it blends in with the color of grass.
Two years of this, enough lady, get your own ducks and keep them in your own yard. This is our world too. I call it a foul to actually arrest her though. I guess a fine would be worse.
Dec 10, 2011
And I told her…God provides for the birds that fly, and every living thing in the air and sea but, she is a former Hight Priestess of her Mason lodge, and hates when I talk about God. She still calls african americans colored people! Oh! I don't remember ever hearing that until her. i got so mad, I told her, she is a racist, and she stopped but, she is now complaining that They are all over TV! I tell her please…don't start with that, you are talking nonsense, isn't your adopted great granddaughter Philippine? I don't let her get away with any of it!
Dec 10, 2011
This is completely ridiculous. The city of Lynn should be ashamed. You're wasting the tax dollars the people of this country pay you to do this?
Dec 11, 2011
She looks like such a nice old lady. I can't believe she would do such a heinous thing as feed the birds…
What a crock of bird #&$@.
Dec 11, 2011
I agree with you. Feeding birds, or squirrels or any other creature will attrack more and more creatures. Bread really is not a healthy food to be feeding ducks anyway.
Dec 13, 2011
lol i just seen this comment..thats funny
Jan 3, 2012
Are You effing kidding me?!? People are starving their pets to death with no jail time but this lady wants to feed birds and they want to put her in jail? Where are the priorities of the "justice system"? IT IS A F*%#ING JOKE!!! Yes, this stuff really gets me mad!