A P.E.I. farm family has been given permission by Stratford town council to kill some crows in order to stop the birds from ripping their crops out of the ground.

'We have been told that this is probably the best option.'— Tania MacKenzie

Council made the decision in a closed door meeting Wednesday night. Under the current town noise and nuisance bylaw a gun cannot be discharged by anyone other than an officer. Council has given the MacKenzies an exemption.

Greg and Tanya MacKenzie have been trying to deal with the crow problem for days. They've been using noise devices called "bangers" to try to scare them away. The bangers haven't done much to frighten the crows but they've generated plenty of noise complaints at town hall.

Tanya MacKenzie said they realize the noise is upsetting people and are now trying to reduce the use of the bangers.

"We have gotten permission from the town of Stratford to have a hunter with a valid license to come in and help us out and shoot a few of these crows," she said.

"We have been told that this is probably the best option, to do that, to hang a crow on a pole and hopefully scare the other crows from coming to the field and bothering the plants."

In addition to trying to use dead crows as a scare tactic, agriculture officials will bring in a different type of noise machine Friday. It's called a "squawker", and it emits animal sounds that crows don't like, but which are not so offensive to people.