by Ryan Ponto | Nov 22, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products
BEIJING — With the arrival of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, one billion birds are migrating or have migrated to warmer climates. Nearly a quarter of them were expected to pass through China as part of their journey.
In recent years, however, much of the country has become a treacherous place to fly for the 1,300 species of birds passing through. Once inside China’s borders, many of them fall prey to poachers who supply the country’s thriving underground wildlife trade.
In early October, animal rights volunteers dismantled more than 20,000 metres of bird nets near the northern cities of Tianjin and neighbouring Tangshan, Hebei province. More than 5,000 dead birds were caught in the traps. Later that month, 233 swans and 26 mallards were found dead in Inner Mongolia’s Hongtu Lake, also known as “Swan Lake”. The birds were found to contain traces of carbofuran, an agricultural pesticide that poachers use to kill birds they later sell for food.
China’s demand for migratory birds, whether for meat, Chinese medicine or gambling fights, is not new. But the scale of the current underground trade has put many species on a path toward endangerment, or even extinction.
The State Forestry Administration is currently in the middle of a national crackdown on poaching nets in the countryside. The “net-clearing operation” also aims to clamp down on all aspects of the thriving illegal trade, including transportation and sales.
Still, the trade flourishes. Legal loopholes, lenient penalties and regulators who lack expertise and enforcement jurisdiction have failed to deter poachers and traders.
Even if the birds can manage to elude capture, they are left searching in vain for rest spots that no longer exist. Rapid construction and development have reduced their habitats in China by nearly 80 per cent in just a few decades.
In the rural areas of Shandong province’s Shen county, or Shenxian, bird nets cascade from the roofs of houses down into the adjoining wheat fields. Next to the nets, loudspeakers project quail calls to lure birds in.
Ms Liu Yidan, a volunteer at an animal rights organisation called Let Migratory Birds Fly, had not expected to stop here. She was on her way to the nearby wetlands, a known rest stop for migratory waterfowl, when she saw the nets. Apparently, news of the ban on netting birds had not reached Shenxian. After reporting the illegal nets, Ms Liu and local forestry officials took down nearly 8,000m of nets.
“Many people told us that no one had ever told them not to put up bird nets,” Ms Liu said. “No one had told them that catching and selling birds was illegal.”
In this relatively affluent county, the local thrushes are valued for their mild calls, and quail fighting is a local tradition. The thrush cannot be artificially bred, and the quail is a migratory bird, arriving in China each winter from Siberia.
Trading in the birds requires virtually no investment besides the net, and the work can be very profitable. At the local market, a male quail can fetch up to 30 yuan (S$6.20), and depending on the quality of their songs, thrushes can sell for over 100 yuan each. The local farmers catch about 75 birds per day in their nets, and up to 200 on a good day, according to an investigation by Ms Liu and other volunteers.
But the scope of China’s illegal bird trade goes way beyond small markets trading in the local catches. On Nov 16, forestry officials in the Guangxi region identified four underground wholesale dens trading in migratory birds in Pingle county. One of them was in an abandoned school building.
As part of the raid, they discovered more than 30,000 live chestnut and chestnut-eared buntings, migratory birds that come from Siberia to Guangxi’s Guilin each winter. Frozen specimens, including some Class 2 protected owls, were also found. A volunteer who helped lead authorities to the warehouses saw refrigerator trucks with Guangdong province license plates at the scene. The volunteer thinks the birds were being trafficked to Guangdong to be eaten.
China’s appetite for wild-bird meat has already pushed some species to near-extinction. In 2004, the yellow-breasted bunting, a small bird that migrates each year between northern Europe and South-east Asia, was considered a “species of least concern” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
But prized in China for its fatty meat and supposed nutritional value, the bunting has been the target of rampant hunting. Since 1980, the global population has decreased by 90 per cent, and in 2012 it was officially declared endangered by the IUCN, and hunting it was banned.
Beijing veterinarian Dr Ren Pu recalled seeing more than 600 yellow-breasted buntings killed and sold when visiting a bird market in Tianjin over a decade ago.
“Now there is less and less of this,” he said. “In the early 2000s, you could find all kinds of wild-bird meat in Beijing’s private clubs, including swan and even great bustard.” Known in China as the “flying pandas”, the great bustard is the world’s heaviest flying bird and a Class 1 protected animal in China.
Even the increasing awareness and sympathy for the plight of wild birds has been exploited for business gain. Some merchants coerce animal rights volunteers into buying the merchants’ supply to save the animals’ lives. Ms Liu has personally spent millions of yuan buying wild birds from dealers in order to save them. Even on her trip to Shenxian, she could not help but buy 45 thrushes at the local market.
Every weekend in Beijing, the more than 20 illegal bird markets highlighted on a Let Migratory Birds Fly map bustle with activity. On Nov 12, with the national “net-clearing operation” underway, many have closed their doors. But illegal sales persist in nearby alleyways.
After discovering a shop selling a variety of protected species, a Beijing volunteer from the organisation who asked not to be named called the Forestry Department to report the violation. Four hours later, officials showed up. They could not identify the species of the birds, and only after the volunteer’s help in doing so do could they confiscate some of the protected birds.
They did not issue a fine or punishment, saying that the shop was operating an illegal business, which was outside their jurisdiction and regulated by the Business Administration Department.
Ms Liu encountered the same thing in Shandong. The Forestry Department could punish only poaching. Once at the market, sellers could avoid punishment simply by denying any poaching activity.
Ms Liu and the volunteers’ experiences can be explained by gaps in China’s legal framework for regulating the wild-bird trade. Most of the migratory birds that are hunted are classified as Level 3 protected animals, a category that includes animals that are beneficial and have economic and scientific research value. The hunting of Level 3 animals is considered criminal under Chinese law only when over 30 animals are hunted. Furthermore, no specific laws address their breeding or sale. The result is that only very-large-scale cases are penalised.
“It is really difficult to find a basis for punishment,” according to Mr Zhou Haixiang, director of the Ecology and Environment Research Office at the Shenyang University of Science and Technology. He said that the mere possession of protected animals should be criminalised. This way, prosecution can occur no matter at what level of the supply chain the animals are discovered.
But even if China was able to put a dent in the wild-bird trade and save its avian migrants from death at the hands of poachers, human activity on migration routes is in itself a threat to survival.
Of the eight main avian migration routes, three pass through China. The most threatened is the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, on which migratory birds travel north from Australia, New Zealand and the Western Pacific islands through China’s most densely populated eastern coastal provinces.
During the journey, the birds inhabit the muddy beaches of China’s coastal wetlands. But studies have shown that more than 60 per cent of the country’s natural coastal wetlands have disappeared in the last 50 years. From 2006 to 2010, an average of nearly 100,000 acres of coastal wetlands were encroached upon each year to build industrial zones, ports, and other coastal infrastructure projects.
And demand for the land shows no sign of stopping. According to the latest coastal development plans, there is a need to reclaim more than 1.4 million acres of wetlands to meet demand.
In September 2015, a wetland protection system was put in place by the central government. But local governments have still found ways around the rules. For example, any wetland reclamation project larger than 125 acres must be approved by the central government. In response, local governments simply reclassify one large project into many smaller projects, all involving less than 125 acres of wetlands.
If loopholes like these stay on the books, China will remain unable to protect the migratory birds within its borders. CAIXIN
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)
by Ryan Ponto | Nov 20, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting
Avoid pigeon poop because of this emerging disease:
Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli infections in humans cause disease ranging from uncomplicated intestinal illnesses to bloody diarrhea and systemic sequelae, such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Previous research indicated that pigeons may be a reservoir for a population of verotoxigenic E. coli producing the VT2f variant.
We used whole-genome sequencing to characterize a set of VT2f-producing E. coli strains from human patients with diarrhea or HUS and from healthy pigeons. We describe a phage conveying the vtx2f genes and provide evidence that the strains causing milder diarrheal disease may be transmitted to humans from pigeons.
The strains causing HUS could derive from VT2f phage acquisition by E. coli strains with a virulence genes asset resembling that of typical HUS-associated verotoxigenic E. coli.
Whole-genome characterization and strain comparison of VT2f-producing Escherichia coli causing hemolytic uremic syndrome
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)
by Ryan Ponto | Nov 19, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products
MIKE TYSON has designed what has been described as the ‘best Christmas jumper ever’.
The former world heavyweight champion, 50, has released a festive effort which manages to feature boxing, his pet tiger and his love for pigeons – all on one sweater.
And he even takes a light-hearted swipe at his own speech, with the ‘Merry Christmas’ message changed to ‘Merry Chrithmith’.
Tyson wrote on his Twitter: “We wish you a Merry Chrithmith! Spread some holiday cheer and get your very own sweater here before they’re gone”.
Tyson has a long history with pigeons, going way back to his childhood – and has revealed the first fight he ever got into was as a 10-year-old after a bully ripped the head off his pet.
‘Iron Mike’ revealed: “The guy ripped the head off my pigeon. This was the first thing I ever loved in my life, the pigeon.”
An enraged Tyson responded with his fists – and would go onto the be the self-proclaimed ‘baddest man on the planet’.
He continued: “That was the first time I threw a punch.
“I have loved pigeons since I was nine. They were my escape.
“I was fat and ugly. Kids teased me all the time. The only joy I had was pigeons.”
Tyson is widely considered one of the best heavyweight boxers of all time and ended his professional career with a record of 50-6-2, with 44 of those wins coming by way of knockout.
But pigeons were his first love and are plastered all over the new knitwear – along with the royal Bengal tiger which he kept as a pet at a cost of $4000-a-month.
And Mike stunned a Lincolnshire pigeon farmer in 2010 when he unexpectedly turned up at his farm with his armed entourage.
Darren Peters recalled how Tyson arrived at his farm off the A17 and stunned him with his bird knowledge.
He said: “He was here for about two hours and at the end had to be told by his manager to hurry up because he was wanting to see everything we’ve got here.
“He told me it was the best pigeon coop he’d ever seen.
“Since he’s retired from boxing he has started to concentrate more on pigeons.
“In fact, he didn’t really talk about boxing at all – just 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)
by Ryan Ponto | Nov 15, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Pigeon Spikes
KEARNEY, Nebr. (NTV) — Pigeons are splattering gooey droppings on downtown Kearney. Now, business owners are putting pressure on the Downtown Improvement Board to make sure the poop doesn’t cut into profit.
Assistant City Manager Paul Briseno says there are several flocks of pigeons throughout Kearney, but it’s the one by the tracks downtown that have some running for cover.
“It’s been some sort of a problem for a long time,” said Linda Seals, owner of K-Town Cakes & More.
Briseno says the city estimates as many as 400 pigeons are flying, perching and pooping in downtown Kearney.
“We’re just having a lot of problems with the pigeons making messes on the sidewalk and in front of the store, and it’s not very appealing to your customers,” said Seals.
K-Town Cakes & More has been in the heart of Kearney for the past four years, and Seals says the pigeons sit inside awnings to stay warm.
“They had made a home, their little nest there. That was their place to go,” said Seals.
That has forced her and other businesses to install bird spikes to keep the pests from landing.
“We thought that would probably be the most humane thing to do to keep them away,” said Seals.
Other business owners brought their concerns to the Downtown Improvement Board.
“One of them was a hair salon, and they mentioned how a lot of times when their clients would leave the property, sometimes they would have to navigate through the pigeons defecating, if you will, on the ground as they left,” said Briseno.
Briseno says the board has taken the first step to getting rid of the muck.
“We took some bids, and are looking at some humane approaches to taking care of the matter,” said Briseno.
Briseno says once a bid is accepted, the board will know exactly when the birds will be pushed out.
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)
by Ryan Ponto | Nov 13, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products
No matter your own personal feelings about street pigeons, a visit to a major European city just wouldn’t be the same without encountering the ubiquitous winged urbanites in overwhelming droves: bathing en masse in fountains, teetering upon — and defecating from — the ledges of historic buildings, congregating in public squares in such great numbers that the pavement morphs into a filthy, squawking sea of feathers, beaks and imperious attitudes.
Similar to London, Venice and Paris, Barcelona has long struggled with taming its own sizable — and seemingly perpetually multiplying — feral pigeon (Columba livia domestica) population. City-dwelling descendants of the wild rock dove have all but taken over — and left their unsightly mark on — some of the Catalan capital city’s most popular and iconic plazas and public spaces including Plaça de Catalunya, Plaça Reial, Plaça de Sant Jaume, Parc Güell and the stressfully pigeon-heavy area around Font Màgica.
Joining animal control authorities in neighboring municipalities, Barcelona officials have signaled that it’s high time that they ramp up their pigeon control game by employing what might seem like a most unusual tactic — a tactic that’s been heralded by animal welfare activists as being exceptionally ethical when compared to other more gruesome methods of curbing feral pigeon populations.
They’re putting pigeons on the pill.
Avoiding the cull
Citing a recent article published by El Mundo, Motherboard reports that animal control authorities were initially going to go the quick and dirty route: a large-scale culling in which hundreds of birds would be rounded up and killed. However, the government was ultimately persuaded by numerous animal rights groups to consider a just-as-effective method that, ideally, will not result in a single pigeon death: providing the birds with birth control.
Following an extensive pigeon census that will help officials better understand exactly how many pigeons they are dealing with (current estimates in Barcelona hover around 85,000), 40 bird feeders stocked with contraceptive-laced pellets will be installed in particularly pigeon-heavy areas. The pellets will contain nicarbazin, an anti-parasitic drug first used to treat poultry. While effective as a coccidiostat, a well documented side-effect of the drug is that it renders female birds infertile by halting egg formation. In turn, nicarbazin has emerged as an increasingly popular choice amongst animal control experts looking to control pesky bird populations — feral pigeons and Canadian geese, in particular — without resorting to gratuitous slaughter.
A spokesman with the Barcelona city council tells the Daily Mail that officials anticipate that by providing the scourge of street pigeons with birth control, the population could drop by as much as 20 percent within just one year. Within just a few years, the population could be reduced by 70 to 80 percent.
Considering the rather harrowing current state of pigeons in Barcelona, a reduction of 80 percent will likely be viewed by most as welcoming news. But while Barcelona’s wealth of historic building and monuments will be less poop-stained and its residents and visitors less inconvenienced/intimidated thanks to such a dramatic drop in numbers, one does wonder about a virtually pigeon-free city. For better or worse, the birds are part of the urban fabric in Spain’s second largest city. Would a pigeon-free — or pigeon-lite — Plaça de Catalunya have the same authentic charm as a Plaça de Catalunya that’s swarming with hundreds of birds? Will another bird take over in the pigeons’ absence? And what will become of those little old Spanish pensioners who never, ever leave home without a small paper bag filled with breadcrumbs?
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)
by Ryan Ponto | Nov 11, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products
Planet Earth II’s final episode last night left viewers brimming with amazement once more, this time at a giant predatory fish who hunts down pigeons.
The ancient French city of Albi plays host to ‘monstrous’ Wels catfish, who have ‘virtually exterminated the local fish stocks’ over forty years, according to David Attenborough.
And BBC One viewers could barely stomach footage of pigeons being ambushed by the scaly killers as they took a casual dip in the River Tarn.
Because pretty much everyone can agree birds are meant to eat fish, seeing the finned catfish get their own back felt all kinds of wrong.
Apparently it’s the pigeons’ biggest strength — a lack of fear — that allows the beasts to prey on them so easily.
It seems a catish is only able to pick off one pigeon at a time, usually by pulling down their feet with their mouths.
Seeing as pigeons have lived in Albi for as long as we humans have, it’s rather unfortunate that they’re now being hunted by an upstart, watery intruder.
‘After thousands of years living in this city, pigeons are now having to learn to avoid a fish,’ said Attenborough.
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)
