Neighbors claim couple has been feeding wild vultures. Now, this NC town is suing.

A years-long squabble over an Orange County couple’s alleged feeding of wild vultures has now sparked a legal battle with town officials, according to a lawsuit filed in March.

Hillsborough residents have long complained about swarms — or committees — of vultures circling West Queen Street, and about Kenneth and Linda Ostrand, who they say have attracted the carnivorous birds to their property for years by leaving out food scraps.

Those grievances have now culminated in a lawsuit, as the town of Hillsborough seeks a court injunction to put an end to the alleged vulture feeding it says has put public health and safety at risk.

“The Town, and its residents have been, and continue to be, harmed by the continued attraction of vultures to the Property,” Town Attorney Robert Hornik Jr. wrote.

According to the lawsuit, filed with Orange County Superior Court and first reported by Chapelboro.com, the standoff began around May 2024, when officials began receiving complaints about the “frequent presence” of vultures at the Ostrands’ West Queen Street property.

The Ostrands, local residents claimed, were leaving out food for the vultures, which “lured more and more vultures to congregate at and near the Property,” the complaint reads.

Photos provided in the filing show dozens of vultures lining the roof of the couple’s home, sitting in branches of nearby trees and flying through the neighborhood.

In February 2025, the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance that prohibited the feeding of wildlife beyond bird feeders or food for domestic animals. And in October 2025, the Hillsborough town manager sent the Ostrands a letter ordering them to cease and desist their feeding of the large birds to end the “nuisance situation.”

But town officials allege the Ostrands weren’t deterred.

“As recently as early February 2026, Mr. Ostrand was observed placing some material, believed to be food scraps, on the ground at the Property,” the complaint states. “Moments after Mr. Ostrand set out the food scraps, vultures swarmed the Property to, presumably, feast on whatever food scraps Mr. Ostrand had placed there.”

The filing also raises alarm about a high volume of “vulture excrement” around the neighborhood, making sidewalks slippery and damaging driveways, tree branches, roofs and cars due to the “corrosive effect” it has on surfaces, the lawsuit stated.

“The repeated actions of Mr. and Mrs. Ostrand feeding the vultures and attracting them to their Property and nearby properties, poses danger to the health, safety and welfare of Town residents,” the filing reads.

Now the town is seeking court approval to direct the Ostrand to permanently cease any further feeding of the vultures based on their alleged violation of town code.

Allegations are ‘out of date,’ Ostrands say

In a response to the court on April 13, the couple said they largely stopped feeding the vultures in November 2024 after discussions with neighbors about the situation. The Ostrands wrote they “like birds, and wildlife in general,” and occasionally did put out food scraps.

But the allegations, they said, are “based on hearsay” and rooted in old information that they say hasn’t been reviewed since 2025.

In 2025, The Assembly reported the Ostrands fed a pair of injured vultures, which the couple said they’d nicknamed Morticia and Chester.

“The result since 2025 has been an almost complete reduction in the number of birds, with the exception of their normal flight activities,” the Ostrands wrote in their response. “It will be reminded that this is highly social, migratory species of federally protected birds.”

In their response, the couple denied any “accumulation of vulture excrement” or damage to neighborhood roofs, homes or sidewalks. The Ostrands also argued other Hillsborough residents hadn’t faced similar legal action for feeding deer, squirrels or other wild animals or birds on the basis of the town ordinance since its creation in 2025.

And in response to the photos included in the filing on behalf of town officials, the Ostrands said photos of vultures circling does not indicate their feeding of the birds “any more than tennis shoes demonstrate the wearer is Wimbledon player.”

The couple wrote that their civil summons should therefore be tossed out.

“The Ostrand’s feel they are being targeted unfairly for situation that no longer exists,” they wrote.

In their response to the town’s filing the Ostrands also wrote that their civil summons document had not been adequately filled out, which they said was also grounds for dismissal.

As of Friday, no upcoming hearing was listed for the case, according to court records.

This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 12:33 PM.

Faith Wardwell

The News & Observer