Despite the elimination of 50,000 feral chickens in two years Bermuda is no nearer to wiping out the pests which are destroying crops and costing farmers dearly.

Acting Director of Environmental Protection John Barnes said problems caused by well-wishers who feed them were now coming home to roost and such animal lovers might soon run "fowl" of the law by becoming responsible for chicken-related damage.

The 2001 annual report of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries said chickens pose a threat to newly-planted seedlings and pick and scratch at mature cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage causing thousands of dollars of damage.

Exasperated farmer Tom Wadson said: "It's a huge problem but it doesn't seem to be addressed.

"We need to get rid of the chickens, they are not cute, they are not nice and they transmit disease.

"They are not supposed to be part of Bermuda's eco-system. I fight them day in and day out. I try to get rid of them with traps.

"There needs to be a blitz to eradicate them. If they get into something they can be devastating."

Mr. Barnes said the chicken population was difficult to control despite the efforts of Chickens Plus, a private company which had trapped 50,000 in two years.

A lack of natural predators and Bermuda's affluence meant that neither man nor animal was interested in eating them, said Mr. Barnes.

"No one is eating them, they aren't even collecting their eggs. A lot of people feed them plus they jump into the trash and help themselves."

Control of wild cats and dogs has also reduced a natural threat while wild chickens have some sponsors.

"There's that bleeding heart mentality - `these poor chickens, maybe we should feed them'."

He said there was legislation penalising people for allowing their chickens to stray but people who feed chickens often simply denied ownership.

Mr. Barnes said the law might be changed, in a similar way to dog legislation, to make feeding tantamount to ownership.

"We are working with the Attorney General's chambers."

But he said some people took the view it was not a Government problem and that people had to sort out it out themselves as they would do with cockroaches.

Mr. Barnes said chickens made noise, dug huge holes and could wipe out an entire field of crops overnight.

"They do tremendous damage. They eat crop seedlings or pick off leaves. They pick holes in bananas."

He said Spittal Pond and Ord Road were wild chicken hangouts while parks throughout the Island also gave shelter.

"It's difficult to find a suitable measure to stop them. The difficulty with poison is you don't want to kill the bluebirds and the other good birds. Shooting is very difficult here.

"These birds wise up pretty quickly. There is always one rooster that won't go in a trap."

He said Chickens Plus were good at catching chickens by trapping or grabbing them in trees but the chickens often simply moved to a different neighbourhood.

"You clean them out but they come back in dribs and drabs.

"They multiply very quickly and there's nothing to keep the numbers down."

He said a hen could have ten chicks in a year who would all soon breed at the same rate.

But Vernon Hollis, from Smith's, is on the side of the chickens.

He said: "God feeds us and provides food for them. I don't see why they want to murder them.

"There are chickens in several places, they need to be cared for."

The Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau (BFAB) have made a big effort to control stray cat numbers. But BFAB President Aideen Ratteray-Pryse said cats were not a predator of chickens.

She said: "They seem to co-exist rather than one being a predator of the other. There's not much of a connection. I have no idea why."