PiCAS INTERNATIONAL

A pigeon caused a great deal of public interest in the town of High Wycombe, UK, when it became tangled in netting provided above a restaurant in the town.  The netting had been installed to stop pigeons perching on a window box above the restaurant.  Firefighters were called to the building to remove the distressed bird which had obviously been entangled in the netting for several days, unable to move.  The pigeon was taken to a local wildlife hospital to be treated but the bird died some days later.  The manager of the hospital said: "Normally pigeons are pretty robust, they don’t succumb.  He’d had terrific trauma where he was.  He was very thin and very distressed." 

This is a classic example of why nylon netting should never be used as a deterrent.  The PiCAS Group receives hundreds of calls each year from members of the public and property owners alike who have found a bird trapped in degraded or poorly installed netting.  These birds are the lucky ones as they have a chance of being rescued from what would otherwise be a death-trap.  There are, however, in the UK alone, tens of thousands more birds that are never found and starve to death whilst hanging in netting.

What most property owners do not realise is that if they instruct a pest control contractor to install netting on their property it is they that will be prosecuted should a bird die whilst entangled in the netting, not the pest control company.  A vast majority of netting that is provided by the pest control industry is poorly installed and is also the incorrect product to suit the client’s needs.  Netting will always be recommended wherever possible based on the fact that this product, alongside culling operations, is one of the most profitable services that any pest control company can sell to its client base.

For more information on netting and other deterrents please see the Deterrents page. 

A company in Cambridgeshire, UK, is having great success with an inflatable bird scarer called ‘Scarey Man’.  The device is the brainchild of Michael Barratt, a farmer, who runs a company called Clarratts Ltd that is marketing the product worldwide.  ‘Scarey Man’ has attracted extensive attention from the media and Michael has confirmed that he is receiving a considerable number of orders from countries as far away as Australia.

The following description of the product is taken from the ‘Scarey Man’ website:

‘Scarey Man is an excellent pest and predator control device for use in a wide range of situations. Using a unique combination of sound and movement he strikes fear into his target prey and keeps them away for longer periods than ‘conventional’ control devices.

Scarey Man can be used in agriculture to deter birds and predators. Protecting young crops from damage (such as pigeon damage in Oil Seed Rape) is no problem, and by keeping pests away Scarey Man can pay for himself very quickly. Field scale crops of all kinds (arable, vegetable, ornamental etc.) can be protected as can orchards and vineyards. Livestock are also protected by Scarey Man, as are fisheries where herons and other fish loving birds need to be deterred.

Whilst Scarey Man was designed originally for agriculture his use has quickly spread into a multitude of other areas. For example he is used in airports to keep runways clear, and on commercial/residential properties to prevent fouling by pigeons and other birds.’

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On April 18th 2007 the town of Manlleu in Catalunya, Northern Spain will officially launch it’s pigeon control programme in association with PiCAS Espania.  The scheme will see a tailor-made dovecotes, alongside designated feeding areas, provided within the town in an effort to control and reduce pigeon numbers.

PiCAS Espania’s team of experts has been working alongside Manlleu Council to provide this unique and humane pigeon management system that will see pigeon feeders and those wishing to engage with the birds using a specially provided feeding area designated within one of the town’s green areas.  It is hoped that those members of the public that currently feed pigeons within the town, causing problems for many of the town’s property owners, can be persuaded to use the designated feeding site.  Once pigeons are attracted to the feeding area it is hoped that the birds will take up residence in one of the two specially provided dovecotes.  Their eggs will then be removed, as laid, and substituted with dummy eggs, thereby causing no harm or distress to the birds.

The official launch of the programme will take place on April 18th and will be well publicised in advance.  This will be the first humane pigeon control programme provided in Spain that is based on the PiCAS model.  Further news of this forthcoming event will be available on the PiCAS International website closer to the launch date. 

Two neighbours in Kansas City, USA are locked in a dispute over pigeon feeding.  Jane Schmidt regularly feeds seeds to pigeons in her garden but her neighbours, Donald and Paula Staton, are sick of clearing up after their neighbours feathered visitors.  The Statons say they have no objection to the birds as long as they do not perch on their property.  Paula Staton said: “They’ve pooped on my house, they’ve pooped on my car, they’ve pooped on my dog,” Paula Staton said. “They are the filthiest bird there is.” In spring and summer, she said, “there are so many pigeons they make a dark cloud over our house.”

Jane Schmidt reacted by saying: “You will see they don’t bother her at all,” Schmidt said. “They come and they eat and they leave.”

Schmidt has a soft spot for birds, especially during cold spells.  “Anywhere I go, if I see hungry birds I feed them,” Schmidt said. “If you abuse animals and don’t take care of them when the weather’s (cold), that’s bad.”  Schmidt went on to say: “I don’t have any problems with other neighbors,” Schmidt said. “She is the only one who is complaining.”

The Statons tried without success to get neighbors to sign a petition aimed at getting Schmidt to stop feeding pigeons. Paula Staton said her area is not represented by a neighbourhood association that could take up their cause.  Believing that pigeons are a nuisance, that their excrement is a health hazard and that bird seed could attract rats, the Statons turned to City Hall for help. 

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 A 50-year old bird feeding area situated in the city centre of one of India’s largest cities, Bombay, was removed on March 10th by the city’s Civic body, the BMC.  This historic and well used bird feeding area has sustained a majority of Bombay’s wild bird population, including large flocks of pigeons, for the last 50 years.  The birds have been fed daily by residents and visitors to the city alike.   The BMC confirmed that it taken this deeply unpopular decision on the basis that the removal of the feeding area would somehow ‘clean up’ the city centre area of Bombay.

Guy Merchant, Director of PiCAS International said: " It is quite clear that the BMC are simply jumping on the bandwagon put in motion by bird hater Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, following his removal of Trafalgar Square’s bird feed seller in 2000.  Livingstone’s actions resulted in many thousands of pigeons starving to death in the winter of 2000/2001 due to the fact that he had deliberately not allowed a ‘cooling off period’ in order for the birds to adapt to the removal of a food source that had sustained the flock for over 50 years."

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East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC), in the UK, has revealed plans to educate the public not to feed poor quality food to the resident Muscovy duck population in the Cambridgeshire City of Ely.  The Council will also ask residents and visitors to the City to reduce the amount of food offered to the birds in an effort to control their numbers.

ECDC sought the advice of PiCAS some years ago in relation to this issue and PiCAS worked closely with the Authority in an effort to empower the Council to provide a humane and effective control system that dealt with the source of the perceived problem, not the problem itself.  In 1998 ECDC had culled a number of these gentle and remarkable birds in an attempt to control their numbers.  Inevitably the cull only acted to increase Muscovy duck numbers in the City rather than the reverse.

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Columbiana City Commisioners and a local businesswoman in Lisbon, Ohio (USA) are currently considering a plan to relocate pigeons perching on the County Courthouse and adjacent buildings.  The plan, put forward by Stevie Halverstadt and her sister Renee Lewis, apparently involves cage trapping adult pigeons that are perching on the Courthouse as well as moving nests, complete with young birds, from Ms Halverstadt’s building to a new site a few blocks south. 

Ms Halverstadt has been provided with information from the US-based group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in order to come up with this plan.  PiCAS International works in partnership with PETA where humane and non-lethal resolutions to pigeon-related problems are concerned.  Ms Halverstadt has confirmed that she does not want to harm the birds and said: "They (pigeons) will go where their nests are."  Ms Halverstadt also suggested that once the birds have been moved, the next generation accepts the nests as their own and once the flock increases to 300 in number it will not increase further in size. 

Once the birds have been sucessfully relocated from the Courthouse, and the building adjacent owned by Ms Halverstadt, the Courthouse will be professionally cleaned and then protected with anti-roosting spikes.

Although PiCAS International applauds Ms Halverstadt’s approach to this issue based as it is on non-lethal controls, and indeed the City Commisioners instruction to have the birds released following the trapping operation rather than having them killed, the operation is unlikely to be sucessful and it will almost certainly involve the deaths of all of the baby pigeons that are moved.

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PiCAS International has learned that the city of Mill Valley in California, USA is currently considering whether to implement a ban on feeding pigeons in the downtown area of the city.  The ban is being considered after the City Authority received numerous complaints about pigeon excrement on sidewalks in downtown areas and other probems associated with pigeons.  The City Authority is also considering a $100 fine for anyone found to be feeding pigeons.

Responses from the public appear to be mixed.  One shopper said: "I realise that pigeon droppings are a nuisance, but I think we are living in a society where Big Brother is watching over us way too much".  Another shopper said: "People also make a mess too". 

Some businesses said that pigeons and pigeon soiling issues were driving shoppers away and yet businesses said that they felt that a ban on feeding might cause other problems.  One shop owner, Dave McDonald, said: "It’s not the way to get rid of the problem.  You get a young person that throws half a muffin down, this could be the hundred dollar fine in the future.  You got an old person sitting on a bench, that’s their only joy feeding the birds, there’ll be a big fine for that".

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