Owners of two Bristol properties are asking a court to bar another neighbor from feeding large numbers of wildlife.

The complaint filed in Lincoln County Superior Court on Aug. 11 claims the feeding has led to wildlife crowding and, in turn, property damage and safety risks.

In addition, flashes from motion-sensitive cameras go off at all hours of the night, Vernard and Linda Grimes and co-plaintiff Phillip Averill claim in their suit against Sherrie Tucker and William Lawton Jr. 

The suit claims the flashes disturb the neighborhood. The wildlife feeding generates photographs for Tucker’s photography business, Reflections of Nature, the suit claims.

According to the complaint, Averill has had his property at 5 Salt Pond Road in New Harbor for about 85 years; his co-plaintiffs, a separate property at the same address, about 10 years. Before Tucker moved to 3 Salt Pond Road around 2010, the plaintiffs had no wildlife infestation problems, the suit states.

Then Tucker started leaving corn on the ground, food in bowls on her porch, and peanuts in bird feeders, the complaint continues. The food started attracting chipmunks, red squirrels, flying squirrels, seagulls, raccoons, mice, rats and other animals, it states.

“The artificial increase in a food source has increased the animal population and ... strained the natural carrying capacity of the limited natural resources .... As a result of this crowding and competition, the wildlife has caused damage and destruction (including) nesting and animal waste in (plaintiffs’) homes, burrowing and tunneling on their grounds, and chewed electrical wires, insulation and mattresses, which have had to be replaced and (risk) ... the (occupants’) health and safety,” the suit states.

The suit describes Tucker and Lawton as husband and wife. According to the suit and Bristol tax records, they own a property at 3 Salt Pond Road.

The suit claims they were negligent in attracting “hordes of animals, sick or otherwise” that could spread disease; and it contends that they knew or should have known their activities would impact the use and enjoyment of the other properties.

Attempts to reach Averill, the Grimeses, and their attorney Kent Murdick II, as well as the two defendants, Tucker and Lawton, for comment were not immediately successful. If Tucker and Lawton oppose the suit, they will need to answer it within 20 days of being served, according to court documents.

The suit seeks an unspecified award for damages, as well as a court order for the defendants to address the issues raised in the complaint.