When Vultures Attack

Buzzards are not all that unsual to spot in Southern Brazoria County. After all, there's good eatin' all around -- a fresh batch of run-over racoons and possums and armadillos nearly everyday. That's probably why, in Lake Jackson, you see them hanging around Bess Brannan Elementary School fairly often. It's right by FM 2004 and Hiway 288, a veritable cornucopia of roadkill.

Even so, you don't hear many people complain much. In Texas, you'd be considered sissified if you got your panties all twisted over the presence of vultures. In Virginia, however, the birds have become a hell of nuisance, pecking out the eyeballs of newborn calves, tearing up property and giving the willies to unsuspecting citizens. After all, how'd you like to get all psyched up to visit grandpa's grave and find a flock of vultures perched on his tombstone?

Buzzards smell like ammonia and vomit when they feel threatened, but the enviros don't want the authorities to allow Virginians to wage a jihad on the creepy-lookin' birds that are known as "nature's garbagemen."

Here's the scoop from the NY Times. We're reasonably sure none of this stuff was made up.