‘Don’t feed the birds:’ Granville Island ups warning signage
Posted July 6, 2017 4:33 pm.
Last Updated July 7, 2017 6:07 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Trying to enjoy a meal outside on Granville Island can lead to a scene straight out of Hitchcock’s film The Birds, which is why a new signage campaign was designed to put an end to bird feeding on outdoor patios and eating areas.
Signs have long hung from lamp posts, but now several standing posters speckle the water-front with added messages about why it’s harmful to birds to for humans to feed them.
“We just want to educate people,” Granville Island representative Lisa Ono says. “I think that people mean well when they feed the birds and they think they’re doing a good thing, but we just want to make sure that they understand that it’s not healthy for the birds.”
Most of the signs simply remind people not to feed the birds, but others don more thorough messages such as “caring about bird health is letting them find their own food” and that “feeding birds is so unhealthy that BC SPCA now consider it indirect animal cruelty.”
“We consulted with the Stanley Park Ecological Society… and they gave us some advice about the kinds of messages they thought would resonates with our visitors,” Ono says.
On the docks, a few mothers reminded their kids to read the signs, while several individuals could be spotted tossing small pieces of their lunch to the birds.
The signs haven’t even been up for a week so Ono isn’t sure if they have had an effect yet.
