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A woman who rescues hundreds of pigeons and seagulls before nursing them back to health in her terraced home has accused neighbours of working with the council to “ostracise” her.
Elizabeth Mooney has rehabilitated and released over 1,000 birds from her modest home in Liverpool over the past six years.
But after her neighbour accused the birds of attracting vermin and causing noise, Liverpool City Council (LCC) slapped her with a prevention order.
Ms Mooney has accused the council of working with neighbours to gang up on her and strip her of her ‘civil liberties and freedom’.
The 40-year-old carer, who keeps up to 20 birds in the garden of her West Derby home, told MailOnline: ‘It feels like everyone’s against me. I just feel like selling up and going.
‘I’ve never caused any problem, this has been brought to me, reporting it. Everytime I go out to rescue a bird I get photographed by my neighbour. She [Marie Tulley] sends it to the council.
‘It is not illegal to keep wild birds if a vet has checked, treated and signed off. I feel ostracised. I felt like I couldn’t go out and walk down the street.’
But neighbours are less than sympathetic and say her endlessly birds are making their lives hell.
One said: ‘The summer is a complete nightmare, and you can forget about barbecues or anything like that.
‘The birds will just take the food out of your hand. If you sit out with a drink they start pooing all over you.’
Ms Mooney claims her war with neighbours began around three years ago when another resident began taking photos of her everytime she left the house to rescue fledglings.
But events came to a head in October this year when LCC began pursuing Elizabeth and her operation.
In a series of in-person and written warnings, they accused her aviaries of attracting vermin because of bird poo and scraps of food left on the floor, adding how the homeade nird rehab was negatively impacting her street.
She then claims LCC wrote to neighbours, encouraging them to report her to the RSPCA if they have concerns.
Ms Mooney was also issued with a Public Protection Order – which restricts certain activities in a public space to improve the quality of life for residents – accusing her of putting the public at risk.
She was the issued with a lengthy list of do’s and don’ts.
Ms Mooney must not post onto her ‘Liverpool, Merseyside Bird Rehabilitation & Advice’ Facebook page, which has 11,500 members, advertising her services and allowing Scousers to flag birds in need of rescue.
She’s also been banned from rescuing anymore birds in the Liverpool area, must stop feeding seed to wild birds, release all seagulls and pigeons in her possession and clean up her aviaries of excrement. She says she has carried out most of the orders asked of her but still has ten seagulls at her home.
But she added: ‘Surely that’s against civil liberties or freedom?
‘They’ve put on there that I can’t go out and collect a bird that is injured. You should have the freedom to go out, he said I can’t even post on the [Facebook] groups anymore.
‘I’ve rang the RSPCA, they’ve been here before. They said “we’ll only come if you want us to support you”.
‘I have a quick intake and a quick outtake. No vets here will actually treat because they don’t have the money or the facilities to help every wild bird. It’s just to try and save them from euthanasia here.
‘I can’t walk past an injured animal on the street and not pick it up. I couldn’t be told I can’t do that.
‘I thought that was trying to create hate towards what I was doing, trying to gain more support for him rather than me. He should not write to people that are not even aware of it.
‘That morning [after receiving the letter] I usually talk to neighbours but they had their head down and not looking at me. There were two others that turned their back on me.’
With vets bills hitting £1,000 and the council requiring her to carry out a £350 survey on her aviaries, Ms Mooney says she could be forced to close.
She added: ‘I’ve been at this six years
‘People rely on me to pick them up. If I can’t do that, they’re going to get left on the street to die.’
However, neighbours have claimed they have been made miserable by her pigeons dive bombing their back gardens, stealing their food and invading their homes.
Charles Wilkinson,83, who lives next door to Ms Mooney’s bird sanctuary, told the Mail he had endured years of misery.
Mr Wilkinson, who once coached Robbie Fowler and Ross Barkley in junior league football, said he was now at his wit’s end.
The pensioner, whose home is a shrine to Liverpool FC, said: ‘I have suffered over recent years. She has seagulls, pigeons and ducks too.
‘And the smell and the noise – they are going all night long.
‘Some of these birds are big and aggressive.’
Mr Wilkinson, who lost his wife two years ago, said the birds would try and invade his home.
He said: ‘If you leave a window open they will try and get in. I think she lets them fly in and out of her house.
‘I am too old for this now but if I was in my prime I would be out sorting this out.
‘We are all sick to the back teeth of the birds.’
A young mum living a few doors down , who asked not be named, said: ‘It’s been pure hell to be honest.
‘The back gardens are infested with rats now. I can’t let my little boy play out in the garden anymore.
And the stink in the summer is just horrendous.’
Another neighbour said:’There are people turning up at her house delivering birds and feed all day long.
‘What is going on in that house? Surely its time for the authorities to do something. I just feel there is something very strange going on.’
Liverpool City Council did not respond to comment.
The RSPCA were approached for comment.
People can donate to Ms Mooney’s go fund me page at https://gofund.me/506aaa1b.
