Pigeon Patrol

Blind woman warns of pigeon poop exposure danger Social Sharing

by Pigeon Patrol | May 14, 2022 | Bird Netting, Bird Spikes, Columbidae, Doves

A young woman in Fredericton is singing on the street to call attention to the disease that made her blind.

Erica Richards lost her sight last year after developing Cryptococcus meningitis.

Cryptococcus meningitis is a potentially fatal swelling of the membranes surrounding the brain. The disease is caused by fungus that lives in the guts of pigeons and other birds, such as chickens.

People can breathe it in if they’re exposed to pigeon droppings.

The 24-year-old was living in a house that had a pile of pigeon feces in the attic, and she also had a compromised immune system from chemotherapy .

“A reverse migraine — I needed light, I needed sound. I needed neck massages. Couldn’t lay down, couldn’t sit up. Couldn’t eat. I was vomiting. And then I started having double vision, quadruple vision, then seizures. And then I ended up in hospital,” she said as she described her symptoms.

Richards sings to supplement her $135 a month disability payment.

Kevin Forward is an infectious disease specialist who teaches at Dalhousie Medical School in Halifax.

“I think it’s pretty common sense. Move to avoid being in a situation where there are a lot of pigeon droppings, particularly if you’re disturbing them, cleaning them up, sweeping them,” Forward said.

“Those kind of situations should certainly be avoided. But if you’re in the park that has some pigeons around, I think the risk is infinitely small.”

Pigeons are part of the urban landscape, but they are known to carry a long list of disease-causing organisms — such as Chlamydia and salmonella.

That, along with complaints about them damaging roofs, led Fredericton to add pigeons to the city’s animal control bylaw last year.

Property owners are now prohibited from spreading feed or anything else that would attract pigeons.

Richards wants to make sure people know the risk of coming into contact with pigeon feces.

“To draw attention, to raise awareness so people will ask questions, so they will know what the symptoms are,” Richards said. “So that way, they can be warned ahead of time, before what happened to me happens to them.”

Next month, she’ll be going to a school sponsored by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to finish high school and to get matched with a seeing-eye dog.

She hopes to go on to study law.

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

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Belgian racing pigeon sells for record £1.4million

by Pigeon Patrol | May 14, 2022 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Bird Netting

A racing pigeon from Belgium has set a new world record after being sold for more than £1.4million.

New Kim, a three-year-old female, was initially put up for auction for just €200, but after a two-week bidding war she fetched a staggering €1.6 million.

During a frantic last half-hour, two Chinese bidders operating under the pseudonyms of Super Duper and Hitman drove up the price by £251,000 (€280,000). Super Duper submitted the winning bid.

The bird’s breeder and owner Kurt Van de Wouwer said he and his family were “in shock” at the news.Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, founder of Pipa auction house for racing pigeons, shows off the prized birdThe final total left the previous record set by fellow Belgian-bred bird, Armando, trailing behind by around £314,000 (€350,000).

Armando, who was nicknamed the “Lewis Hamilton of pigeons” for his racing prowess, was retired when he was put up for sale in 2019.

New Kim won a number of competitions in 2018 but has also now retired.

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Pakistanis respond after ‘spy pigeon’ detained in India

by Pigeon Patrol | May 14, 2022 | Bird Netting

The news of a pigeon detained in India on suspicion of being used to spy for Pakistan was met with amusement on both sides of the border – and encouraged Pakistanis to share memes and jokes making fun of their neighbours.

It all started when a 14-year-old boy in an Indian village close to the border with Pakistan found a white pigeon with a message written partly in Urdu, the language widely used in Pakistan, and some numbers in on its feathers. The bird was taken to police who ordered the bird to be X-rayed. Nothing suspicious turned up, but the pigeon was registered in police logs as a “suspected spy” according to reports.

The area where the bird was found is close to Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan and the scene of cross-border military confrontation.

“This is a rare instance of a bird from Pakistan being spotted here. We have caught a few spies here. The area is sensitive, given its proximity to Jammu, where infiltration is quite common,” local police superintendent Rakesh Kaushal told the Times of India.

India and Pakistan frequently accuse each other of spying. This week, the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed concern over the actions of foreign intelligence agencies in Pakistan – which many saw as an allusion to India. But the official detention of a bird led to amusement and sarcasm on both sides of the border.

In Pakistan, pictures were created to mock the Indian authorities and portray the humble pigeon as a suave modern-day spy. The hashtags #PigeonVsIndia and #IfIWereAPigeon have been mentioned tens of thousands of times. Both hashtags appear to be promoted by two social media teams who actively seek to create Twitter trends, and identify themselves as supporters of Pakistan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf political party.

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The pigeon that saved a World War II bomber crew

by Pigeon Patrol | May 14, 2022 | Bird Deterrent Products

Seventy years ago a carrier pigeon performed the act of “heroism” that saw it awarded the animal’s equivalent of the Victoria Cross – the Dickin Medal. It was the first of of dozens of animals honoured by veterinary charity PDSA during World War II.

On 23 February 1942, a badly damaged RAF bomber ditched into the North Sea.

The crew were returning from a mission over Norway, but their Beaufort Bomber had been hit by enemy fire and crashed into the sea more than 100 miles from home.

Struggling in freezing waters – unable to radio an accurate position back to base – the four men faced a cold and lonely death.

But as the aircraft went down, the crew had managed to salvage their secret weapon – a carrier pigeon. The blue chequered hen bird, called Winkie, was set free in the hope it could fly home to its loft in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, and so alert air base colleagues to their predicament.

During World War II, carrier pigeons were routinely carried by RAF bombers for this very eventuality, though in an era before GPS and satellite locator beacons, rescue was far from certain.

But Winkie did make it home, after flying 120 miles, and was discovered, exhausted and covered in oil by owner George Ross who immediately informed RAF Leuchars in Fife.

The pigeon was not carrying a message, but the RAF were able to calculate the position of the downed aircraft using the time difference between the plane’s ditching and the arrival of the bird – taking into account the wind direction and even the impact of the oil on Winkie’s feathers to her flight speed.

A rescue mission was launched and the men were found within 15 minutes.

Elaine Pendlebury, from the PDSA, said the carrier pigeon had been released as a “last ditch stand” when the crew realised they had no other options.

“I find it very, very moving really. These people would have died without this pigeon message coming through,” said Ms Pendlebury.

Winkie became the toast of the air base, with a dinner held in her honour. A year later, she became the first animal to receive the Dickin Medal – named after PDSA’s founder Maria Dickin – for “delivering a message under exceptional difficulties”.

More than 60 animals have since received the award, including 18 dogs, three horses and one cat. But pigeons still rule the medal roost, with 32 being given medals, all between 1943 and 1949.

“It’s very hard for us with mobile phones and emails and things like that to think about the way communication would have happened in the 1940s in wartime,” Ms Pendlebury told BBC Scotland.

“It was very difficult and the pigeons certainly saved numerous lives by flying through really dreadful situations.”

One pigeon, called GI Joe, was an American bird which saved more than 1,000 lives when it got a message through that a village about to be bombed had actually been recaptured by British forces. Another – Mary of Exeter – was used to send top secret messages and received 22 stitches after being injured in the course of her duties.

“I’ve been a veterinary surgeon for quite some time but I find the ones that have won the PDSA Dickin medal, the stories are quite inspiring – above and beyond really,” Ms Pendlebury added.

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Bird Control and Prevention

by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 29, 2022 | MBCA, pet bird, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Predators

Why Control Birds?

They can lead to large-scale pig feed losses
They can spread human and animal disease and carry parasites, and
They can damage property.

Feed Wastage

Feed wastage through birds can be high, particularly on outdoor pig units.
Birds can take large volumes of sow rolls, equating to high financial losses and make it difficult to estimate quantities being eaten by the sows themselves.
On average, bird feed intake can be 24g per bird per day, rising to 50g per bird in a single feed when herring gulls are the main species; this feed loss can cost thousands of pounds over the course of a year, and
Feed losses can impact on sow productivity and piglet viability.

Disease

Disease organisms spread by birds include: Brachyspira hyodysenteriae (swine dysentery) Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, Campylobacter spp. and Listeria monocytogenes.
Pigs are at risk of becoming infected with these organisms through poor standards of hygiene, after being in contact with droppings or if birds contaminate their food or water.
High levels of birds on units can introduce new strains of Salmonella and re-circulate existing infections; this can result in more pigs carrying Salmonella at slaughter
People can also be at risk of Salmonella and other infections through similar transmission methods.

Birds Most Likely to be Seen on Pig Units

Gulls
Crows
Pigeons – particularly hard to eliminate
Starlings – a particular problem during the winter
Birds of prey – birds of prey will take young piglets and feed off dead piglets and afterbirth.

Bird Prevention

Manage and prevent access to feed, especially feed wastage around mills, bins and feeders; if food is available, birds will always return.
Prevent bird population build-up through practical on-farm deterrent measures such as screens; galvanised mesh screens can have a payback on saved feed losses of around 4.5 years (based on an 800-place finisher building).
An armoury of acoustic and visual scarers will be needed to control birds as they can become habituated to ‘scaring’ mechanisms quickly, often returning to units after a few days.
Altering the scaring mechanism every few days is the best form of prevention.
Some birds will be more affected by certain scaring mechanisms than others so it may be necessary to use two per day and mix them up.

Options for Minimising Bird Populations

Good feed management
- reduce waste and spills
- minimise fines from cobs
- use cobs if starlings are the main problem
- use pellets if gulls are the main problem
Cost-effective feeding strategies
Feed by the fenceline
Reduce the length of the feed face
Use ad lib feeders with covers and chains around
Replace material/flexible feeder covers for metal ones
Trough feeding
Wet feeding
Exclude birds from buildings using netting/mesh screens (keep well maintained)
Apply plastic strips to arc fronts to exclude small birds from gaining access
Nails on posts.

Options for Scaring Birds

Acoustic scarers, e.g. gas bangers and distress call audio tapes; note these are effective in the short term but birds will reappear
Material kites (tied to a weight)
Decoy birds
Hawk falconry flights
Decoy birds
Walking with an empty gun or stick of similar length behind the tractor at feeding.

By reducing the availability of feed to birds, a number of long-term benefits will be seen, including reduced direct livestock feed losses and therefore improved productivity and viability, less chance of disease transmission and a reduced need for conventional short-term bird control methods.

Targeting and designing cost-effective feeding strategies are therefore key in controlling birds, as well as a greater use of mechanical controls such as lids on feeders and barriers at feed stores. The main requirement for mechanical controls is effective maintenance of the screens used.

Controlling Birds

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is possible to control certain species of bird in the UK.
Persons relying on this licence must be satisfied that non-lethal methods (see examples above) of resolving the problem are ineffective or impracticable.
Keep records including dates of non-lethal methods applied, to assist licence applications.
There are special licences for different risks.
The licence (general) most likely to be required by pig producers is ‘To kill or take certain wild birds to prevent serious damage or disease’. This licence is granted to:
1. Prevent serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters.
2. Prevent the spread of disease.

Source

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Blind woman warns of pigeon poop exposure danger Social Sharing

Belgian racing pigeon sells for record £1.4million

Pakistanis respond after ‘spy pigeon’ detained in India

The pigeon that saved a World War II bomber crew

“It’s very hard for us with mobile phones and emails and things like that to think about the way communication would have happened in the 1940s in wartime,” Ms Pendlebury told BBC Scotland.

Bird Control and Prevention

Why Control Birds?

Feed Wastage

Disease

Birds Most Likely to be Seen on Pig Units

Bird Prevention

Options for Minimising Bird Populations

Options for Scaring Birds

Controlling Birds

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