Hang 'Em High: Police hang dead vultures to scare live ones

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After years of complaints about flocks of vultures vomiting onto playgrounds and houses, Greeneville is trying a novel approach to scare off the birds.

The Greeneville Sun reports the city is hanging dead vultures from trees.

Police Chief Terry Cannon said vultures roosting on playground equipment in the Sunset Street area have made it unusable because they vomit the remains of dead animals they have eaten onto the equipment.

Cannon said artificial noisemakers and blank gunshots failed to scare the birds away, so police applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill some of them.

Public works crews then hung some of the dead birds from the trees at the suggestion of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee.

It may be a strange sight, but Cannon says it has worked — a least so far.