Owning a vacation home in West Palm Beach’s Ibis Golf and Country Club is a dream come true for most people, but for a couple of residents that dream quickly turned into a nightmare after their properties were taken over by dozens of black vultures.
Earlier this year, New Yorkers Anthony and Siobhan Casimano bought a vacation home in the Ibis Golf and Country Club for 702,000 dollar, but when they decided to vacation there, they were shocked to find it had actually been taken over by dozens, if not hundreds of black vultures. They were practically living in the pool area, had destroyed the property’s screened enclosures and did not appear too happy to share the place with its human owners. They pecked at their car, and vomited when they got too close, as a means of self defense. Despite their best efforts to have the issue resolved, the Casimanos remain unable to drive the vultures away and reclaim their expensive property.
Photo: Skeeze/Pixabay
“I have a 2-year-old daughter that I can’t bring down there while this situation is happening, they’ll probably attack her” Anthony Casimano told WPBF, while his wife added that the birds smell “like a thousand rotting corpses”.
The Casimanos’ next-door neighbor, Cheryl Katz, told reporters that she has been struggling with the scavenging birds ever since they arrived in the area, in May. They have been harassing her ever since, and on Memorial Day they tore through her pool enclosure and became trapped inside. She described the spectacle that followed as “traumatic”.
“They would bang against my windows running away from a bird that was attacking them. Blood was everywhere. It was a vile, vicious, traumatic event,” Katz said. Because it was a holiday, no pest removal company would come to help, and it took three police officers to drive the birds away.
Katz said that she tried everything from helium balloons and loud music to fake owls to drive the birds away, but so far nothing has helped. She bought four owls with moving heads and blinking eyes, but the vultures just pecked at them and chewed them apart.
“They ripped the heads off,” Katz said, adding that one of her neighbors is to blame for the vultures sticking around the neighborhood for so long. The unnamed woman has allegedly been feeding the birds dog food and roast chicken, so the black vultures are reluctant to find other scavenging grounds. The neighbor has been warned, but the vultures are staying put for now.
Neighborhood association president, Gordon Holmes, told local reporters that residents’ options were limited, because black vultures are protected by federal law.
Interestingly, Florida residents have been struggling with black vulture invasions for years, as evidenced by the dozens, if not hundreds, of videos on YouTube.
