They were promised the time of their lives but pricey booze, dirty loos and invasion of doos ruins Dirty Dancing event for movie fans

A Dirty Dancing theme night had to be scrapped – after customers claimed the event was invaded by pigeons.

Organisers of The Dirty Dancing Movie Experience, held at the Govan Shed in Glasgow, pulled the plug on an evening show after they were hit by a deluge of complaints over the afternoon session.

Customers said the sound quality was poor, prosecco was overpriced and warm and a cinema screening of the movie was hampered by pigeons inside the venue.

Fans of the 1988 movie, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray, were promised the time of their lives and paid £15 a ticket to enjoy the big-screen show, cocktails, street food and live dancers. But last night the event’s Facebook page was inundated with unhappy customers looking for refunds.

One social media user, Yvonne Watson, said: “We were there today and it was the worst thing ever. Freezing cold warehouse, birds flying around your head and five portaloos.

“We left after half an hour. A disgrace.” Andrea Toner said that the show was nothing like the advertisements and added: “I’m disgusted and disappointed and feel I’ve been conned.”

Sarah Brady wrote: “Portable toilets and £26 for a bottle of Prosecco and you can’t even hear the film. The toilets blocked and do not flush, no water to wash your hands.”

Customers were told to contact Twinkle Cinemas for a refund but complained that their emails bounced back.

Casey Williams, from the company, said: “A licensing officer from Glasgow City
Council came out to the venue at our request this evening and was completely happy with everything.

“We don’t think we have sound problems and we have refunded everybody for the cancelled show.

“A small number of people had an issue and everyone else had a fantastic time.”

The event had its first show on Friday and is due to run shows today.

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Meet Carlisle United’s latest signing – brought in to tackle mess-making birds

Extra help has been brought in to bolster Carlisle United’s defence – against troublesome mess-making birds.

While Keith Curle battles to bring in new faces for his match day squad, the club has swooped to get a new member of the backroom team – a hawk named Buzz.

The new addition has been brought in to solve a big problem the club has with menace birds causing mess at Brunton Park.

Seagulls, pigeons, sparrows and other feathered friends have been roosting in the stadium and leaving behind an unpleasant mess with grounds staff and cleaning contractors spending countless hours each week removing it.

In the search for a more permanent cost-effective solution Matt Bond, from Carlisle-based CITO Cleaning Ltd, who are the club’s cleaning contractors, put forward the idea after his bird-watcher son suggested it.

“Everybody in the city knows there’s a bird problem here,” he told the News & Star.

 “At the football club it’s been there for about three seasons, especially in the first few months of the season. Birds nesting is a massive problem. This year there seems to be a lot more.”

With the plans approved by the club Gary Swainson, from the Cumberland Bird of Prey Centre, was brought on board and Buzz started circling the ground last week.

“It’s one of those jobs that can be very successful or the species targeted can be very resilient to it,” he said.

“It has to be an ongoing process. If you scare them once they will go away but they will come back again.

“We’ve been out at the ground most evenings for the last week. The idea is that pest species don’t get a regular time, they just know that the area is patrolled by a predator.

“They then know it becomes an unsafe place to be.

“The idea is that by flying the hawk they will go and roost somewhere else because they feel uncomfortable.”

Mr Swainson says that birds will naturally try and return to places where the conditions are good for roosting, as Brunton Park appears to be.

Mr Bond added: “It’s been very effective so far but it’s not a 100 per cent guarantee.”

While the problem is affecting all sides of the ground the problem is most apparent in the east and west stands.

The scheme at Brunton Park has sparked interest from other areas of the city where there have been high-profile bird problems.

“People have been saying to us why hasn’t this been done before,” Mr Bond added.

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Pigeon woes go on despite progress at train station

As the Community Council members are on a summer break until September, our news this month is mainly ongoing issues but progress is happening!

The Pipe Band Championships at the end of July certainly brought another successful day to our town with the usual influx of visitors and the amazing talent from all ages in the pipe bands including some local young talent which is always an extra reason to experience the feel good factor.

Work on Dumbarton East Railway Station has finally been completed . The work started last year and was an on/off project for months when problems were experienced with the bridge crossing. However, the station has been resurfaced and new concrete slabs have been laid. We will see if the shelter builds up water or not when it rains.

Unfortunately, although the station has had a makeover, the area under the bridge is still a haven for the pigeons so the pigeon mess is still as disgusting within a day or two after being cleaned. No word has been heard on whether the Council has been able to obtain a stream of funding to address this problem but an effort is being made to obtain finance to deal with this. The wheels of time etc etc!!

If you are passing the new Council Offices, you will notice the progress being made and the building is certainly taking shape. The old Academy Building is getting the makeover which is bringing it back to life and when it is finished will be an asset to the town centre.

The next meeting of Dumbarton East & Central Community Council will be held on Tuesday 12 September 2017 in St Augustine’s Hall at 7pm. The AGM will be held that evening and members of the public are welcome to come along and meet their Community Councillors and if there any issues you wish to raise, this is the meeting to come to and make your views heard. If it is in our remit, we will be happy to take any issues up with the appropriate personnel. Also, we are always looking for news members – but that is certainly not obligatory.

Enjoy what is left of the summer. Could be an indian summer yet!

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Researchers Offer Solution to Puzzle of Sea Snakes With Jet-Black Skin

Dr. Shine observed that most of the sea snakes there were black — as they were in a remote atoll nearby that was used as a bombing range. This was weird, he thought, because in the rest of their range, from northern Australia to Vietnam, about 95 percent of the sea snakes wrapped themselves in skins of blue and black bands or speckles.

There seemed to be no advantage.

But then Claire Goiran, a marine biologist at Labex Corail & Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie in New Caledonia and lead author of the study, told Dr. Shine about black pigeons that dominated the streets of Paris. She had learned that in their black feathers, they collected metals from the city and shed them when they molted. Maybe the sea snakes did something similar.

To find out, the researchers tested the shed skins of black and banded sea snakes for more than a dozen trace minerals, including zinc, arsenic, cobalt and nickel. As expected, the black skin — whether it belonged to a whole black snake or just a black band — contained more of the metals.

Trying to figure out the evolutionary advantage of this correlation, the researchers determined that it wasn’t camouflage. And it didn’t make snakes sexier to other snakes. They reasoned that the minerals accumulated in the water, moved up the food chain and became sequestered in the black skin. The dark skin also attracted an algae, which took residence on the snakes’ bodies, creating a heavy, velvety cloak. To get rid of the algae, which slowed them down in the water, the snakes shed their skin more often, protecting them from levels of metals that are toxic in other animals. Like the urban moths and pigeons, their skin may have adapted to deal with a stressful environment.

“On the one hand it’s encouraging that wildlife can adapt very rapidly to the new challenges we’re imposing on them. On the other hand, there are bound to be limitations to that resilience,” Dr. Shine said. “We can’t keep treating natural ecosystems the way we do without losing some pretty spectacular animals.”

About Pigeon Patrol:

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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Spring in the air, China’s pigeon racers give birds their meds

BEIJING (Reuters) – Guarding against avian flu, which has forced a mass cull of birds in China, pigeon fancier Wang Jincang paid out nearly $400 to get his 200 racing pigeons vaccinated and fortified for the onset of the spring racing season.

“I normally choose imported medicines, which are several times more expensive than some local brands,” Wang told Reuters as he lined up to enter birds for contests that begin this month.

The cost of vaccination is small change compared with how much pigeon enthusiasts can pay to buy prized breeds.

An egg can cost a few hundred dollars, while the price for a full-grown bird with a coveted bloodline can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2013, a Chinese businessman paid 310,000 euros (nearly $334,000) for a Belgian-bred racing pigeon, whereas local birds can be bought for less than $100.

Wang doesn’t want to say how much he has invested in his birds, though he spends almost $1,500 a month looking after their health, and describes his pastime as wagering time and money.

“Pigeon racing is essentially gambling. We are betting our time and fortune on the birds, similar to horse-betting,” Wang said.

Any form of gambling is banned in China, but pigeon races, which are flown over hundreds of kilometers, fall under the gray category of social sports.

China hosts more than 100,000 pigeon races annually, some of them organized by corporate-backed professional pigeon clubs like Huashunde, supported by Beijing Huashunde Power Engineering Ltd, and Hongjin Pigeon Club, backed by PetroChina Huabei Oil Field Co.

Prize money has been rising. A club in Beijing is set to award 70 million yuan (over $10 million) in total prize money at its autumn championship.

Ge, a 39-year-old pigeon owner in Fujian, has 80 pigeons. So far, they have helped him win 150,000 yuan (nearly $22,000).

“We aim for good scores and big rewards at contests,” said Ge. “Otherwise, why raise pigeons?”

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

The ‘pigeon man’ of Okaloosa Island

OKALOOSA ISLAND — A gray cloud flies low every day over a sun-kissed beachgoer near the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier.

It’s not a cloud filled with sadness or rain, but one made up of a flock of feathery friends flying in to greet “the pigeon man.”

Resting under a deep blue umbrella with a thick coat of sunscreen on his nose, Dayn Lacke of Cinco Bayou, as he’s formally known, spends his days in a lawn chair soaking up the sunshine. Lacke said it was five years ago when he threw a cracker in the sand and began his passion for pigeons.

“I come out here more than the lifeguards,” Lacke said. “I come out here every day. It could be three hours or it could be all day long. Five years ago I saw a pretty white pigeon and started feeding that one crackers. She got friendly with me. We called her Angel.”

Lacke, a semi-retired architectural illustrator, now has up to 120 pigeons he feeds daily. He said you’ll rarely see a seagull among the group because he only buys wild bird seed, which is the healthiest option for the pigeons.

“I go through about 35 pounds of bird seed each week,” Lacke said. “The bird seed is too small for the seagulls to pick up. In the mornings, they (pigeons) will normally meet me on the boardwalk and line up on the handrails. I then walk through a gondola of pigeons.”

MooMoo, LuLu, Powder, Brownie, Baby and Speck are among Lacke’s favorite birds that he has named. He needs only to call their names for the birds to fly and land on this index finger.

“I formed bonds with roughly 30 of the pigeons,” Lacke said. “I named those, but you can’t name them all.”

Lacke said he asks other beachgoers only one thing: “Do not chase my birds.”

“I would say 95 percent of people walk by with a smile on their face,” he said.

Five percent are dumbfounded or grossed out or freaked out. The pigeons are very tame. When people chase them, it can break their feet, he said.

“I see a lot of people ducking and diving when the pigeons are flying,” Lacke added. “It’s not like they’ll run into you. They’re fine navigators. As long as you’re not a window, I think you’re okay.”

Jenna Testa, a wildlife health technician at the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge on Okaloosa Island, said pigeons are a form of rock dove that is not native to the Emerald Coast. Although helping aid non-native species could have a direct impact on the native ones, Testa said Lacke has also helped refuge workers untangle and aid many native birds on the beach.

“He has a big heart for the birds,” Testa said. “He has a good heart for animals in general.”

Lacke said he also is available to people walking by if they need information or a helping hand. As far as the birds, he said they will continue to be fed.

“If someone else can’t handle it, I’ll keep doing it,” he said. “Even if I come out here just to feed them and then leave, they’ll keep getting fed.”

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)