Creature comforter breaches codes

Birds and squirrels are inclined to love this resident; at least one neighbor isn't.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 17, 2000

PINELLAS PARK -- Kay Diffenderfer's yard filled with birds because she fed them.

The birds, mostly pigeons, often perched on telephone wires right above a neighbor's driveway. Right above his car.

He thought the birds were a nuisance. Code enforcement officers agreed and twice have cited her for code violations.

City rules allow bird feeding. They merely say that no one shall feed birds or other animals if the food causes the creatures to gather in such numbers as to create a public nuisance.

That's what Diffenderfer did, according to city officials.

The root of the matter is what happens when the interests of animal lovers collide with those of people wanting to be free from the mess those animals cause.

"Mess" is the operative word, said Lisa Pezone, head of Pinellas Park's Code Enforcement Department. That's what caused Diffenderfer's neighbor to complain, she said. The birds, mostly pigeons, were sitting on the telephone wires above his driveway. The result was predictable.

"It's a massive amount of droppings that fall on his driveway, his car," Pezone told the community board. "You take one look at the driveway and you know he's not kidding that he has to wash his car a lot."

She added, "With the bird droppings, that was considered a public nuisance because of health and safety issues."

Diffenderfer wanted the rules to change. But council members referred the issue to a community board to see if other residents thought the rules should be altered.

Board members unanimously and adamantly agreed that the rules should stay just as they are. One member, Dan Lemon, even suggested that a park is the proper place to feed birds. "The birds have to come to her," Lemon said.

Assistant City Manager Mike Gustafson suggested that it would be even better if the park was in the county, not the city.

Diffenderfer finds this attitude incomprehensible. Pinellas Park is a bird sanctuary, she said. It makes sense to be able to feed the birds in a bird sanctuary.

"I'll do it whenever I please," Diffenderfer said Tuesday about her bird and squirrel feeders. "(I'll) get out there and feed them whenever, 'cause I'm not going to the park and feed birds."

Though she was disappointed that the community board did not want to change the ordinance, Diffenderfer was more upset that no one from the city had bothered to tell her about the group's meeting or its decision.

"I wonder why they didn't notify me," she said.

The mess wasn't just about bird droppings, according to the code officer who cited Diffenderfer last month.

Not only was Diffenderfer using bird and squirrel feeders, but she was putting out corn cobs for the animals. A code enforcer demanded that those be removed because fruit on the ground and the corn cobs "provide a feeding source for rodents and other animals," according to the officer's findings.

Since that complaint was filed, Diffenderfer has made some changes. The squirrel feeder is still in the back yard but closer to the house. She has moved other feeders to her front yard, "so they wouldn't have to gripe, grumble and complain about it."

"I don't have anybody complaining in the front," Diffenderfer said.

She disputes the city's claim that the fruit left by the birds and the leftover corn cobs attract rodents and other unattractive creatures. That material is biodegradeable, she said, and eventually goes back to the earth to act as fertilizer. It's a natural cycle.

Besides, she said, the city encourages homeowners to establish compost heaps. "I'd like to financially be able to put a big fence up," Diffenderfer said.

Short of that, the best thing would be for everyone to mind their own business, she said.

"Leave me alone," she said. "I pay my taxes and my bills. Let them go their way and me go mine."

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