by johnnymarin | Oct 21, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
BOGOTA, Colombia — On a bright Sunday afternoon, a group of government workers walked around Bogota’s most famous square dressed as pigeons, with cardboard beaks covering their noses, as thousands of real birds swarmed overhead and left their droppings on stately monuments.
Flapping their plastic wings and performing brief skits, they urged curious pedestrians not to feed the large flocks that descend each day onto Plaza Bolivar, a grand colonial era square flanked by a Roman Catholic cathedral and Colombia’s elegant congressional building.
“There are too many pigeons here,” said Mauricio Cano, a biologist who led the group of bird impersonators. “Feeding them is bad for people, and for the birds.”
While London has tried to scare unruly pigeons away from train stations by deploying menacing hawks, and Paris has employed contraceptive methods to limit flock sizes, Bogota’s government is trying to fight pigeon overpopulation through educational campaigns that urge people not to feed them.
Officials believe that if people stop nourishing the birds, they will stop concentrating in public squares where their droppings sully historical buildings and put people’s health at risk. If the birds, which aren’t native to Colombia, don’t gather in large numbers, their rate of reproduction is also likely to decrease.
“We do not want to annihilate these pigeons,” says Clara Sandoval, director of Bogota’s animal protection department. “But we need people to give them a chance to return to their natural behavior.”
A study conducted by city biologists found that the square’s pigeon population doubles on weekends to 3,400 birds as the number of tourists who visit the square’s iconic sites also swells.
“In some areas (of the plaza) you can find up to 33 pigeons per square meter,” Cano said.
But convincing people not to give the birds food has proven tricky.
Feeding pigeons corn and taking a photo with them in Bolivar Square has been something of a local tradition for decades.
It also sustains a dozen or so street vendors who sell small bags of pigeon feed for about $1 each.
“I’ve raised four children with this job,” said Lilly Portilla, who has been plying the trade in the plaza for 25 years.
Bogota’s government is offering vendors like Portilla stalls in public buildings, so that they can sell snacks to office workers, instead of pigeon feed to tourists. It’s also offering job skills training children of vendors so that they have options other than following their parents into the business.
But some vendors say they haven’t been included in the job placement program. And others are not convinced that selling snacks to humans will be as profitable as their current job.
Officials said they will eventually ban pigeon feed vendors from the square if they don’t go voluntarily.
“We have to give these birds their dignity,” said Cano, the biologist. “These pigeons should return to green spaces, where they can feed on their own.”
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 johnnymarin | Oct 20, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
Poisoning pigeons as a way to control their population is cruel and sickening, and should be stopped at once.
Usually, pest controllers feed the birds bread laced with poison. A short while later, these birds will be found writhing on the ground in agony. While struggling and still alive, they are picked up and thrown into garbage bags to be disposed off.
However, a few days ago, I realised that a new type of poison is being used.
This white powdery substance is left near rubbish chutes or on pavements where the birds can be found. The birds ingest this powder and die a slow and painful death.
I have seen three dead pigeons, as well as a cockerel.
Town councils should not be given the right to poison at will. Neither should the word “cull” be used to make it sound acceptable, because it is not.
Similar cases have been reported in Paya Lebar and Ang Mo Kio.
Just how many birds are poisoned each year?
As overpopulation is due to human feeding or the improper clearance of food, the best way to tackle this in the long run is through education, though it may take longer to see results.
Children should be taught from a young age not to feed wild birds and 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)
by johnnymarin | Oct 19, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
We humans are like the pigeon, which sits on a high-tension wire, thinking it is safe. It believes it is the lucky one and no harm will come to it. In how we perceive the environment, its use, conservation and preservation, we are like that pigeon. We build houses on mountains, cutting them to build resorts and roads, and expect landslides and flash floods to never occur. We do illegal sand mining, change the course of rivers and expect them to never die, or the ecology to never wither. We build infrastructure in floodplains, and pray there are no floods. We build cement cities, and then, rue the effects of global warming. We dump plastic waste in nullahs, khads and rivers, and expect fish meat to be nutritious.
Our un-ecological actions go on and on. We shirk our responsibilities towards nature and expect it to bless us with abundant resources.
Several international conventions like Bonn, Rotterdam, CITES and CMS have been working for the conservation of environment, but it has not percolated down to the grassroots. Else why would developed countries continue with coal emissions? Why is the green action climate fund empty? Or, here in India, why swachhta has to be an abhiyan? It should be a part of life.
Perhaps the concept of a welfare state has made us totally dependent on the government for providing and provisioning everything. We do not want to stop using plastic, but we want the administration to take care of all garbage, whether flung across a valley or littered in nullahs. We do not want to pay our taxes fully (India’s tax to GDP ratio is about 4 per cent), which can be used to fund the expensive R&D to build cleaner technologies. But we want low-cost technological solutions to green problems. We strive less to keep public transport and public facilities clean, and then, make that an excuse to use private transport and seek private facilities everywhere, taking the carbon footprint a thousand notches higher!
Why, even after so much research and awareness about ecology and need to be environmentally conscious, our greed knows no bounds? Why do we exploit our resources like we are the last generation? Why do we hoard land and water to become rich while communities out there are languishing in inhuman ghettos? If epidemics originate from such ghettos, they will reach us too!
Population is out of control. The earth’s carrying capacity has remained a topic for books and examinations. Campaigns regarding this are many in the social dimension, but is the urgency of the issue understood? The pigeon in us is not only resting on dangerous ground, but also has its eyes closed, thinking the cat is away. It is time to open the eyes and see: disasters await if we do not change our way of life.
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 johnnymarin | Oct 18, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
The Lafayette Racing Pigeon Club will participate in a cross country relay race helping to raise funds for Wounded Warriors. Over a 62 day period homing pigeons will fly a 4,000 mile relay race across 11 states. On September 11 the first team of birds flew from Vancouver, Washington to their home in Salem, Oregon. Teams of homing pigeons will continue these 50-250 mile relay legs until the final team arrives in Daytona Beach, Florida on Veteran’s Day November 11.
Crossing Louisiana the relay will see teams fly from Hamshire, Texas to Lake Charles, then to Lafayette, to Denham Springs, to Amite, to Slidell and a final leg to Pass Christian, Mississippi.
In Lafayette, Fred Werner will release a team of racing homing pigeons at the new Moncus Park.
Werner states that “ Moncus Park is the ideal release site since there are plans to build a Veterans Memorial here for which the park is currently soliciting donations.”
The message Werner is putting on his birds will also honor a famous homing pigeon from 100 years ago, “Cher Ami”.
Cher Ami was a military homing pigeon responsible for saving hundreds of lives by delivering lifesaving messages. Probably best known is the story of the “Lost Battalion” of the American Seventy-Seventh Infantry Division during World War I that had been isolated from other American forces in the Argonne Forest of France. They were surrounded by Germans, had no food and were running out of ammunition. The unit was being shelled by its own guns taking casualties. They had 3 military homing pigeons as the only means of requesting help. The first two unfortunately were shot down. On October 4, 1918 Cher Ami carried a message from Major Charles S. Whittlesey which read :
“WE ARE ALONG THE ROAD PARALLEL 276.4 OUR ARTILLERY IS DROPPING A BARRAGE DIRECTLY ON US. FOR HEAVENS SAKE STOP IT”.
The pigeon flew 25 miles in 25 minutes despite being shot twice, in the chest and the leg carrying the message and blinded in one eye. Badly wounded she arrived in time to stop the firing and save 194 U.S. soldiers. For this heroic service the pigeon was awarded the French Croix de Guerre, a military honor usually reserved for soldiers. She was shipped back to the U.S. with General John J Pershing personally seeing her off. The little pigeon received the best medical care including a false leg to replace the one she lost. Eventually, however, she died of her wounds and is preserved in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.
The message carried in October, 1918 is the same message Werner will have his birds carry October 2018 from Lafayette to Denham Springs to honor Cher Ami.
All funds raised from this unusual Homing Pigeon Relay Race will be donated to the non-profit Building Homes for Heroes. This organization hands over a customized home debt free to a wounded veteran every 11 days and help honor these wounded vets as the heroes they truly are.
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 johnnymarin | Oct 17, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) – The Richmond Wildlife Center urges the public to be on the lookout for banded pigeons that may be injured while trying to fly back home.
According to the organization’s Facebook page, Saturday marked the annual World Trade Center Memorial Pigeon Race. Banded birds were shipped from Bronx, NY to Lynchburg, VA and then were supposed to “race” back to their lofts in New York.
“Pigeon races have been going on for centuries, having started in Belgium,” said Melissa Stanley, Executive Director for the Richmond Wildlife Center. “This past weekend was one of the biggest races on the east coast.”
According to the Facebook post, many of these birds typically don’t make the 370-mile flight back home.
“Birds of prey are hunting, storing up reserves for migration or for those sticking around Virginia for the winter,” Stanley said. “[They’re] building up reserves for winter when food becomes more scarce.”
At least one banded pigeon was brought to the center from Church Hill after it was attacked by a hawk. It suffered a major bacterial infection. But by just looking at the pigeon you wouldn’t be able to see its injuries.
“There was a puncture under its wing and over its back,” Stanley said. “This bird was particularly lucky it managed to escape. A lot of times these pigeons, which are domesticated and live with people, are not so familiar with predators, such as hawks, and they get picked off.”
Domesticated pigeons are usually distinguishable thanks to the bands attached to their legs.
The band will tell vets the club the pigeon belongs to and when it was hatched – similar to a license on a dog collar.
“These are birds that pigeoneers typically do want back,” Stanley said.
Sometimes the pigeons will have another band on the other leg signifying a race.
“These are only on the birds when they’re in an actual race,” Stanley added.
Pigeon races happen all year round, with plenty of clubs located in Central Virginia.
However, Stanley urges the public to be aware of these birds – if they’re on the ground they’re more than likely injured.
“Every pigeon that we’ve ever admitted needed veterinary attention,” she said. “Often times when they do go down their immune systems are compromised and then they break with various diseases and parasites and have other issues.”
At this point Stanley isn’t sure whether this pigeon took part in the homing race to New York Saturday.
“Pigeons have a fascinating history and have one of the best homing instincts,” she said. “If you think about birds in general they migrate to the same locations over and over again all their lives and pigeons are no different. You raise them in a loft and they learn that the loft is home.”
Now Stanley’s focus is on making sure it recovers and spreading the word about these kinds of injuries.
“If you find a banded pigeon that is down and you’re able to catch it, please don’t follow the bad advice of feeding it, watering it and letting it go,” she said. “Often times that’s not enough.”
In order to transport the pigeon to the center please do the following:
- Place it in a box with air-holes or a cat carrier. Make sure there are towels inside for comfort.
- Fill a water dish, as least 2 inches deep, and place it inside. (Pigeons need to be able to stick their entire beak in the water)
- You can offer them seeds, but not seeds with shells on them
“When you’re giving them their food, make sure you put it right next to their water,” Stanley said. “Pigeons eat and then drink, eat and then drink. You’ll find the next morning that they’ve soaked some of their seed in water.”
There are different kinds of competitions these pigeons may take part in:
- Racing competitions: Pigeons race back to the loft and those that get home the fastest win.
- Homing competitions: Pigeons have to find their way home from long distances. The fastest one home wins.
- Roller competitions: Pigeons that are bred for a specific gene that causes a mini-seizure in flight that makes them roll in the air.
- Tumbler competitions: Similar to a roller competition but the action is on the ground.
“They’re used to relying on humans to be taken care of,” Stanley said. “If they have bands and they’re in a competition they’re very well taken care of. There’s thousands of dollars that goes into these birds.”
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)
