Illegal Avitrol Used to Control Pigeons in Worcester, Mass.

Article published Dec 30, 2007
Nonlethal means touted for nuisance bird control
Chemical Avitrol causes pigeons great suffering

By Danielle M. Williamson
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
dawilliamson@telegram.com

In her nine years helping sick and injured wildlife, Sigrid Warren had never seen anything like what she witnessed this summer and fall. First, the Gardner woman tried to save two pigeons that violently seized and convulsed. A few weeks later, she came to the aid of a mourning dove with half of its tail ripped out, unable to walk. Meanwhile, colleagues saw pigeons, a sparrow and a blue jay drop from the sky. In October, the city’s animal control officer brought her a ruffed grouse that had flown into a store window and died. After unsuccessful attempts to save the birds, Mrs. Warren learned that several downtown businesses had hired a pest control company to use chemical-treated corn kernels to rid their rooftops of pesky pigeons. Suddenly, the previously baffling bird injuries made sense.

“I’m not trying to advocate that we have 10,000 pigeons in town,” said Mrs. Warren, a certified wildlife rehabilitator. “But animals — not just pigeons — that get into Avitrol can die miserable deaths.”

Mrs. Warren can’t prove that the unusually high number of bird deaths, or the disappearance of the hawk that normally watches over her backyard, are directly attributable to a chemical that pest control companies use to control nuisance birds. Necropsies are costly, and she already had disposed of some of the birds before she learned that Avitrol could have been a factor. From her experience, however, she suspects that some of the birds ate the treated corn, became disoriented, and suffered fatal injuries by flying into cars and windows, or by becoming vulnerable to attack.

Waltham Services, a pest control company permitted by the state to use Avitrol, says the right mixture of the chemical with corn kernels is an effective means of keeping pigeons away from the roofs of clients, but acknowledged that its sometimes lethal effects makes it a less than an ideal solution.

Even the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates Avitrol, notes in a September report that the chemical poses “an acute risk” to nontarget species, including hawks.

Wildlife rehabilitators and an international organization that offers pigeon control solutions tout nonlethal options to ultimately reduce the pigeon population, and question why Avitrol, which is banned throughout much of Europe and in New York City, is legal here.

Worcester, meanwhile, has naturally reduced its flock of Canada geese, which, like pigeons, are annoying mainly because of their frequent defecation on public property. “Avitrol doesn’t reduce the pigeon population at all, and we’ve never used it to kill off a flock,” said Richard C. Berman, technical manager for Waltham Services. “Basically, we’re moving the problem from point A to point B.”

The mixture of harmless and chemically treated corn is meant to frighten away pigeons that see other members of their flock become distressed from it. Mr. Berman said that while his company offers nonlethal pigeon control solutions, including netting and bird spikes, Avitrol is the most popular because it is the least expensive.

Gardner officials estimate at least 24 pigeons died over the late summer and early fall, while Waltham Services had permits from the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife to place Avitrol-treated corn kernels at popular pigeon roosting areas.

The company is still using Avitrol in Gardner, but the city has not seen multiple deaths since the fall. Mr. Berman said at the time it was unusual to see so many deaths, especially since his company has been working in Gardner for years. Typically, there are more deaths when a pest control company starts a program, he said.

Since there is no requirement for pest control companies, clients or the state to notify municipalities of the ongoing use of Avitrol, Gardner officials could not immediately explain the deaths. The problem mirrored an incident in Milford in summer 2004, when, unknown to town officials, Milford Regional Medical Center hired a company to use Avitrol, and handfuls of pigeons died in the hospital parking lot.

“We must have tested seven or eight pigeons for West Nile virus,” said Milford Health Agent Paul A. Mazzuchelli. “When people found out it was Avitrol, there was a public outcry.” Milford has since used Avipel, touted as a nonlethal repellant, to keep pigeons away from its bell tower at Town Hall.

Guy Merchant, founder of the nonprofit Pigeon Control Advisory Service, based in the United Kingdom, works with cities and towns throughout the world to naturally reduce the pigeon population, and recently started advising New York City councilors.

Not only is Avitrol dangerous to the birds that feed near or prey on pigeons, but it is also an ineffective means of controlling pigeon problems in the long term, he said. “It staggers me that Avitrol’s allowed to be used as irresponsibly as it is in America,” Mr. Merchant said. “By using lethal means, all you’re doing is increasing flock size. The only beneficiaries are the pest control companies that offer the service.”

When pigeons lose members of their flock, their instinctive response is to “breed open-endedly” to bring flock size back, Mr. Merchant said. His 35 years of experience in the pigeon control field show him that pigeons that lose part of their flock to death will overcompensate, ultimately increasing the flock by 10 percent to 20 percent.

Pigeon Control Advisory Service recommends several solutions for pigeon control: discouraging residents from feeding the birds in congested areas, setting up feeding areas away from the downtown area, and erecting artificial breeding facilities. The group offers its consulting for free. The breeding facilities — 8-foot by 6-foot structures that resemble a garden shed — encourage pigeons to roost and feed in a controlled area. Volunteers, often wildlife rehabilitators, such as Mrs. Warren, go to the structures once a week to remove the pigeons’ eggs and replace them with dummy eggs, Mr. Merchant said.

An article published Feb. 9, 1993, in The New York Times documents the success of such facilities in Basel, Switzerland, starting in 1988. Led by a team of researchers, students and residents built nine pigeon lofts from which they removed 1,200 eggs a year. After 50 months, the pigeon population had fallen 50 percent.

Worcester officials have reduced the city’s population of Canada geese by implementing a program similar to what Pigeon Control Advisory Service recommends for pigeon control. Neighborhood volunteers monitor the birds’ nests in the spring and put vegetable oil on the eggs, ensuring they don’t hatch. James G. Gardiner, acting director of health and human services, said this practice has reduced the city’s flock by 75 geese. “What a difference this has made with the concerts at Elm Park,” Mr. Gardiner said. The city also has a no-feeding ordinance, which has been effective because of an extensive education program, Mr. Gardiner said, adding the pigeon population has visibly decreased since the ordinance was created in spring 2006. Mr. Gardiner said Worcester has not used Avitrol, and believes that reducing the birds’ feeding sources is one of the best long-term solutions.

Mrs. Warren, meanwhile, is hoping for a time when the downtown Gardner area she now calls “the kill zone,” is free of Avitrol, and she doesn’t have to fear for the lives of songbirds and hawks. Gardner Animal Control Officer Lisa A. Gaudet, who took injured pigeons and birds to wildlife rehabilitators, said she felt horrible that Mrs. Warren spent hours trying to help the animals, only to find there was no way to save them. “I’m sure people who feel they have no choice but to use it (Avitrol) would be willing to consider other options if there was a plan in place,” Ms. Gaudet said.

Pigeon Birth Control

Hollywood’s Pigeons To Get The Pill
27 December, 2007

(AP) Hollywood residents believe they’ve found a humane way to reduce their pigeon population and the messes the birds make: the pill.

Over the next few months a birth control product called OvoControl P, which interferes with egg development, will be placed in bird food in new rooftop feeders.

“We think we’ve got a good solution to a bad situation,” said Laura Dodson, president of the Argyle Civic Association, the group leading the effort to try the new contraceptive. “The poop problem has become unmanageable and this could be the answer.”

Community leaders planned to announce the OvoControl P pilot program, which Dodson believes is the first of its kind in the nation, at a news conference Monday.

Dodson said representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals contacted her group with the idea to use OvoControl P. Other animal rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, support the contraceptive over electric shock gates, spiked rooftops, poisons or other methods.

It’s estimated about 5,000 pigeons call the area home. Their population boom is blamed in part on people feeding the birds, including a woman known as the Bird Lady, who was responsible for dumping 25-pound bags of seed in 29 spots around Hollywood.

OvoControl P has been registered with the state Department of Pesticide Regulation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Developed by Rancho Santa Fe-based Innolytics, the substance contains nicarbazin, which interferes with an egg’s ability to develop or hatch, said Erick Wolf, Innolytics chief executive.

The pilot program was expected to show results within a year, and the Hollywood area’s pigeon population is expected to shrink by at least half by 2012, Dodson said.
________________________________________________________

Los Angeles is working on being the second city in the state to successfully reduce pigeon and squirrel populations by using birth control rather than killing the animals.

The LA Times reports that squirrel birth control known as GonaCon, which succeeded in cutting squirrel's birth rate by 66% in 2004 in Berkeley, was piloted in Palisades Park but then thwarted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which deemed the park too small to continue the program.

In Hollywood, though, according to the Times, officials have high hopes for reducing the pigeon population and their tendency to "roost on utility lines, tree branches and elsewhere, depositing their droppings on cars, buildings and even residents" with a birth control method called OvoControl P, which the pigeons eat from feeders.

The pilot program is expected to start showing results within a year, as long as the pigeons consume the kibble once a day. If proven as effective as in previous studies, Hollywood's pigeon population is expected to shrink by at least 50% by 2012, according to the contraceptive's manufacturer.
_________________________________________________________

Councilman Wants Birth Control for Pigeons
11/02/2007
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3806167

A councilman has a unique solution to reducing the pigeon population at the Staten Island ferry terminals: Put them on birth control. Councilman James Odd says OvoControl-P, a drug that renders pigeon eggs unhatchable, could help to thin out the pesky birds and thus the droppings they leave behind inside the terminals where they like to nest.

Oddo says the drug which would be mixed into standard seed has not yet been approved for pigeons by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. A similar product meant for geese was given the OK last month.

Source: Staten Island Advance.

Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden Responds to Pigeon Nettings

The New York Bird Club has received the following correspondence from Council Member Tony Avella (District 19) after he contacted the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene concerning the matter of illegal pigeon nettings occuring in the New York City area.

December 14, 2007

Honorable Tony Avella
Council Member, District 19
38-50 Bell Boulevard
Bayside, NY 11361

Re: Capturing of Pigeons

Dear Council Member Avella:

This correspondence is in response to your constituent, Anna Dove of the New York Bird Club, who is concerned about the capturing of pigeons, by people armed with nets on our streets. We apologize for our delay in response.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Police Department, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the American Society for the Protection and Care of Animals are coordinating our resources in an attempt to address this illegal activity.

At this time, any citizen observing the illegal netting of pigeons can report details of this act by dialing 311.

Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention.

Sincerely,

(signature)

Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
Commissioner
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Office of the Commissioner

Pigeon War - Not Over by Christmas (London, England)

Pigeon War - Not Over by Christmas
December 23, 2007

On Monday 17th November 2003 feeding pigeons in London’s Trafalgar Square became illegal and anyone caught feeding the birds faced a prosecution and a £50 fine. The penalty fine has since been increased to £500.

In 2002, before the feeding ban was imposed, London’s mayor Ken Livingstone hired a pair of Harris Hawks to fly over the Square and scare the pigeons away. This measure cost £44,343 in 2002, their first year, rising to £78,241 in 2003/2004. In 2005/2006 they cost £38,160. Figures show that “Operation Harris Hawk” resulted in the deaths of 121 pigeons and cost tax-payers an average of £90 per bird and bringing the pigeon population of Trafalgar Square down by 121 could hardly be considered a large step forward in the science of pigeon management.
One wonders why the pigeon population has to be “managed” at all. Yes, they do make a mess but hardly more so than people dropping gum and litter in the Square. Surely the pigeons have been an integral part of Trafalgar Square for a century or more. Tourists expect to see them there. I remember standing in the Square as a small boy in the 1960s, with seed on my arms and being smothered in pigeons. I enjoyed the novel experience and I remember getting “hit” a few times by pigeon poo. My father told me that it was “lucky” and that whenever it happened I should make a wish. I survived the poo. I didn’t catch any nasty diseases and lived on to tell the story forty years later.

Since 2003 the perceived wisdom of banning pigeon-feeding has been adopted by councils throughout the land and people have even been fined for feeding birds in their own back gardens. In 2006 Portsmouth City Council managed to fine Ruth Shorter £100 for a “littering offence”. She was dropping bird seed for pigeons near her home. She was taken to court and had to pay an additional £250 in costs. The court heard how Mrs Shorter suffered from depression but took “great pleasure” in feeding the pigeons. One wonders how much the NHS is paying to treat her depression now that she is unable to feed the birds.

When the ASBO (Anti-social Behaviour Order) was created we all rubbed our hands together with glee and imagined that at long last something would be done to curb badly behaved yobs. Little did we know that the new powers were to be used against Bernard Humbleton, a 66-year-old bird lover with terminal cancer and Graham Branfield who had the temerity to feed birds with left-overs in his own back garden. Oldham Council are considering an ASBO for Dawn Benson and Norma Hughes faces eviction if she continues to feed the birds in her front garden.
All over the country from Trowbridge to Derby councils are waging war against the humble pigeon. Why do some people hate pigeons so much?

Are we forgetting the valiant pigeons who have served their country in times of war? Should we stop feeding Chelsea Pensioners too? A pigeon called Gustav was the first to bring back news of D-Day to the UK. He was awarded the “Dickin Medal” along with 31 other pigeons; all birds that carried secret messages during WWII. Their story was recently made into a Hollywood film, “Valiant” staring Ewan MacGregor.

In 2004 the Princess Royal unveiled a memorial sculpture to the animals that served and died alongside British and allied troops and a batch of pigeons was released as a part of the unveiling ceremony. In the same year a Dicken medal awarded to a pigeon called “Commando” was auctioned in London.

A loophole in the law meant that until recently pigeons could be fed from the North side of Trafalgar Square but since this loophole was closed the pigeons have been dying in droves and this week an organisation called the “Pigeon Action Group” held a candlelight vigil in the Square for 2,500 birds. Post mortem tests have shown that the birds have been literally starving to death.

According to the BBC News today, Westminster Council’s efforts to ban feeding does not end with the birds. They are now trying to ban charities from running soup kitchens for homeless people and their typically “Orwellian” justification defies common sense. In a masterful piece of “doublespeak” they claim that it is the soup kitchens themselves which actually keep people on the streets; an interesting-sounding but plainly nonsensical intellectual justification for those minor local bureaucrats who already have warm homes and enough to eat but who would like to “eliminate” homeless people.

My only worry is that this attempt to “eliminate” could see our homeless people eventually suffering the same fate as the pigeons.

PICAS International To Cease Working with PeTA

This week PiCAS International made the difficult decision to bring its longstanding working relationship with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA USA) to a close as a result of differences in approach to the issue of pigeon control. For a number of years PiCAS International has supported the work of PeTA in the USA where the provision of non-lethal and humane pigeon control systems are concerned and PeTA has, in turn, recommended the PiCAS approach widely.

Recently, PeTA made the decision to back a new oral contraceptive drug, OvoControl P, designed for use with pigeons and produced by an American pharmaceutical company called Innolytics (please see posts dated August 4th and August 6th 2007). PiCAS International made it clear to PeTA that it could not and would not back the use of a pharmaceutical drug when tried and tested and completely safe methods of birth control already exist in the form of PiCAS’ own egg removal/replacement programme. Other, more worrying issues have been raised in respect of the long-term use of OvoControl P where resistance to one of the most common causes of pigeon mortality is concerned - coccidiosis (please see comments posted on the August 4th post).

Although PiCAS International will no longer be working in tandem with PeTA over the issue of pigeon control, the PiCAS group still wholeheartedly supports the work of PeTA in other sectors of wildlife control and indeed its work to promote and maintain wildlife habitats.

Source: http://www.picas.org

We Didn't Mean For You to Find Out We Kill Birds (Washington, DC)

Sun Washington Post Staff Writer - Lena H.
B01Metro
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
We Didn't Mean for You to Find Out We Kill Birds

After word got around Sunday night that several Metro stations had been temporarily closed due to dozens of dead birds appearing around them, Metro officials spent the day yesterday trying to figure out how to explain away the fact that the mistake their contractor had made was not that they had poisoned the birds -- merely that they had poisoned the birds at the wrong time of day, and didn't have a chance to clean up the carcasses before commuters showed up.

In today's Post we see that news traveled quickly to the Humane Society of the United States, who quickly contacted Metro officials and said they'd like to help them find humane ways to keep birds out of stations.

Now Metro says they will consider changing their bird-killing policies. A Metro spokesperson explained that they contract with a local company, Dixon's Pest Control, on an as-needed basis and only as "a last resort" to get rid of birds after customers and employees complain about droppings. The agency says it also uses netting and spikes to control the bird population. Of three other major transit systems polled by the Post, none of them said they use poison to get rid of birds.

It's interesting to note the different standards we apply to different kinds of pests. No doubt far fewer people would object to poisoning rats, which are also a big problem for the city, but pigeons, which carry just as many diseases and leave behind even bigger messes -- well we can't just go killing them, now can we?

This isn't to suggest that we think Metro was right. If there are humane alternatives to keeping birds out of Metro stations, then they should be put in place. But based on the information that's come out since Sunday, it looks as though Metro has been quietly killing pigeons and other small birds when they felt they needed to for at least 15 years. Is it really that no one knew about this practice for all that time, or is it more likely that those who are objecting now are just upset about having seen a bunch of dead birds?

Consider Other Ways to Get Rid of Birds

Metro officials said yesterday they might reconsider their longtime policy of poisoning pigeons and starlings after a contractor failed to clean up dead birds at several Metro stations Sunday, closing three stations and stalling trains for hours. After hearing news reports about the poisoned birds, executives of the Humane Society of the United States contacted Metro officials yesterday and offered to discuss more humane ways to keep birds out of stations, according to Maggie Brasted, director of the society's urban wildlife conflict resolution program. "We want to bring them good practical solutions," she said.

"We think that using poison is not very humane." Paul Gillum, director of plant maintenance at Metro, said killing the birds "is not something Metro enjoys doing, but it's sometimes a necessity to provide proper service to our customers." But, he added, he plans to meet with the Humane Society experts. "If there's another way to do business, we will look at it and see if we can make changes."

Metro officials said they have contracted with Dixon's Pest Control of the District for the past 15 years on an as-needed basis to get rid of pesky birds after customers and employees complain about droppings. "Our employees and patrons don't like them being overhead, and there is a tendency for those droppings to get on our Farecard machines . . . and people don't like touching that stuff," Gillum said, adding that Metro uses the poison as a "last resort." The agency also uses netting and spikes to prevent large flocks of birds from roosting, he said.

None of three other major transit agencies contacted yesterday said they use poison to get rid of birds. Officials at the Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia transit systems said they rely on netting and spikes as their primary methods of controlling nuisance birds. Asked whether New York officials use poison to control the legions of pigeons that flock to the subway, transit agency spokeswoman Deirdre Parker said: "Oh no, no, no, no, no. We would never be able to get away with it." Parker said officials rely on a mild electric shock to get rid of birds.

The poisoning process at Metro begins when the contractor sets out food for two to three weeks to attract birds to a particular location, Gillum said. Once that feeding area has been established, the contractor is supposed to bait the area early on a Sunday morning using Avitrol, a chemically treated bait. The contractor is supposed to monitor during this period to make sure "non-target species" of birds do not eat the poisoned bait, according to the contract. The contract also states that Dixon's is required to use "extreme care and caution" in the poison application "so as not to be hazardous to the health of human beings, warm blooded animals, or songbirds. In addition, food, ground water, or subterranean water, must not be contaminated."

On Sunday, the contractor told Metro officials that it put out poison at one bus garage and seven Metrorail stations: Silver Spring and Takoma on the Red Line, and Prince George's Plaza, Fort Totten, Greenbelt, Naylor Road and Anacostia on the Green Line. The contractor, which was supposed to be finished before 7 a.m., told Metro officials it did not begin until 7:30 a.m., Gillum said. Dead birds were reported at four of those stations: Takoma, Greenbelt, Naylor Road and Anacostia. Gillum said the contractor was able to pick up dead birds at some of the stations immediately but did not have time to go back to the other stations before authorities closed them because of the dead birds.

Metro officials said they could not explain why dead birds were found at two stations -- Branch Avenue and Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood -- where the contractor had not put out poison.

In 2006, Metro hired Dixon nine times, paying between $213 and $4,000 each time, based on the amount of work. The company's owner, Robert Dixon, did not return a telephone call to his office yesterday. The reports of at least 60 dead birds triggered an immediate response from federal and local officials Sunday, and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force also interviewed Dixon, according to Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office.

Gillum noted that Metro had worked successfully with the Humane Society several years ago to find an alternative to trapping and killing troublesome beavers at the Greenbelt Metro station. Metro ended up using a device known as the beaver deceiver, which tricks beavers into thinking their dams are not working and prompts them to leave, he said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

Commentary: Pigeons, People & Perceptions

Commentary
Pigeons, people & perceptions
By Mickey Z.
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Nov 15, 2007, 00:14

New York City Councilman Simcha Felder is sick and tired of some Big Apple residents “doing whatever they do all over the city without anyone trying to stop it.” Is he talking about trigger-happy cops, double parked cab drivers, omnipresent terror suspects, loud cellphone users, or maybe corporate lawyers? Nope. Felder has his legislative eye on Columba livia, a.k.a. Rock Pigeon (the bird formerly known as Rock Dove).

According to BirdWeb.com, the Rock Pigeon is “originally from Europe, Northern Africa, and India” but was “introduced to North America in the 1600s.” Since then, of course, “numbers have increased significantly as more and more of our country is urbanized.”

To combat the seemingly urgent problem of urbanized pigeon droppings, the intrepid Councilman Felder plans to introduce legislation banning the feeding of Columba livia. To defy this ban would be to risk a $1,000 fine. (Interestingly, the Rock Pigeon is despised while conversely its all-white cousins -- the Dove -- remain a beloved symbol of peace. Could this be a case of avian racism?) Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t yet endorsed the ban but did opine: “We do have a lot of pigeons and they do tend to foul a lot of our areas.”

Just for the hell of it, let’s replace the word “pigeons” with the word “corporations” in Bloomberg’s statement. Better fit, huh? How about if we just insert “humans”?

For some, the feral pigeon could be viewed as a nuisance. But in all the thousands of years Columba livia have dwelled on this planet, did any of them ever feel the need to invent, say, nuclear weapons? No Rock Dove created pesticides, napalm, Agent Orange, or the internal combustion engine; you can’t blame cigarettes, greenhouse gases, hydroelectric dams, waterboarding, or mercury-laced vaccinations on a pigeon; and rest assured no non-human conjured up zoos, animal experimentation, factory farming, or the rodeo.

Also in the news is James M. Stevenson, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society. Stevenson is currently on trial in Texas, charged with fatally shooting a cat that he said was “stalking endangered shorebirds.” In his own defense, the bird-watching enthusiast said: “This is about wild species disappearing from your planet. I did what I had to do.” Apparently, that jury will hear no theories as to why so many wild species are disappearing from our planet.

Maybe Councilman Felder can blame that on the Rock Pigeon, too.

Copied with permission: Online Journal
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net/.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
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Pigeon-Ban Pusher Addresses Community Board 12 Meeting

12/13/2007
Pigeon-ban pusher:‘I like pigeons’
By Matthew Wolfe
Courier Life Publications

City Councilmember Simcha Felder addresses CB 12 at a recent meeting.

City Councilmember Simcha Felder explained his rationale behind penalizing the public feeding of pigeons at a Community Board 12 meeting last week. Citing messiness and health danger, Felder said that while he supported the existence of pigeons he felt it important to keep their population growth in check.

“The proposal that I put forward is to ban feeding pigeons in public places” said Felder. “We don’t intend to eliminate pigeons in New York City or in the rest of the world.” Felder said he wouldn’t restrict the feeding of pigeons on private proper, he has reportedly said that he would like a $1,000 fine for the feeding of pigeons in public.

Felder has not yet introduced a bill, but has reportedly said that he will do in some time in December.

Felder suggested that he had scaled down his proposals from those offered in the report.

While Felder’s report recommends promoting the breeding of hawks to curb the pigeon population and the deployment of pigeon birth control - as well as appointing a city “Pigeon Czar” – he said at the meeting that he was currently “not into discussing” contraception and hawks but was only emphasizing the limitation of the bird’s food source.

The ASPCA and PETA, the animals organization, support his plan, Felder said, although for different reasons. The groups say that over-population is harmful to the species.

Communicable health risks involving pigeons all stem from contact with their excrement, Felder said. A recent report released by his office that outlined the reasons behind his plan, says the droppings can host such as ornithosis, encephalitis, Newcastle disease, cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, salmonella food poisoning and histoplasmosis. The reports says while the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene consider pigeon droppings to be only a nuisance, their literature cites the threat several diseases in the stool.

Due to the corrosive nature of their droppings, pigeons are estimated to cause approximately 1.1 billion in damage nationwide annually, the report said. According to a recent study, pigeons leave approximately 25 pounds of excrement over the course of a single year, or slightly more than one ounce a day. Pigeons are sufficiently supplied with food left out for them that they are unable to consume all of it. The remainder, Felder said, is often eaten by rats, allowing them to procreate and prosper.

Felder acknowledged to the Borough Park/Kensington residents present that while some may regard the blessings bestowed by the pigeons atop the elevated F-line as a good omen, he said others are less sanguine about receiving such a benediction.

Owl Howls Scare Pigeons on Parkway

BY LARRY McSHANEDAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 19th 2007

That screeching noise coming from the Henry Hudson Parkway? It's not just tires and brakes.
The recorded squawks of owls are echoing through the parkway's toll plaza each day, driving off a plethora of pigeons that cooped (and pooped) all over the area for years. The owl howls - think scarecrows with speakers - boom from the Manhattan side of the bridge to the Bronx, adjacent to the tollbooths on the lower level.

The piped-in noise from the pigeons' natural predators is a huge success in keeping the area clean, said Joyce Mulvaney, spokeswoman for MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The pigeons created major problems at the toll plaza and its facility building, laying a coat of bird droppings on walkways, railings and window sills.

And the smell, despite the neighboring Hudson River, was intense.

Cue the machine. Shoo the pigeons.

"When the device goes off," Mulvaney said, "they scatter."
While the pigeons still do flybys, very few settle in for the long haul since the machine arrived two years ago.

The device, while piercing, is pigeon-friendly. The majority of the birds relocate from the toll plaza to nearby Inwood Park, a woodsy area perfect for pigeons.

The anti-pigeon program was less successful at the Midtown Tunnel, where the birds were chased away but the neighbors were driven crazy by the sounds, said Mulvaney.

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

Joseph Zeman Killed by Negligent Driver (Memorial planned)

A Chicago man widely known as "the Pigeon Man of Lincoln Square" was struck and killed by a van Tuesday afternoon on the Far North Side.

Joseph Zeman, 77, whose love of and attentiveness toward pigeons was detailed in a 2004 Tribune article, was hit by a 1992 Chevrolet van at Devon Avenue and McCormick Road about 2:15 p.m., police said. Zeman of the 2100 block of West Arthur Avenue was pronounced dead at 3:21 p.m. in St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The van was "exiting a parking lot, made a right turn, did not see him and struck him," said Sgt. Antonio Baio of the Chicago police major accident investigation unit. He said a laminated copy of the Tribune article was found with Zeman, and a witness recognized him.

Zeman used to sit for hours on a fire hydrant near Lawrence and Western Avenues with dozens of pigeons perched on his head, shoulders and legs." Soon as I take a seat, they want to be loved and kissed like a mama's baby," Zeman was quoted in the Tribune article. "Like I'm their father, and they're my child."

The driver of the van, a Chicago man, 68, was ticketed for striking a pedestrian in the roadway/failure to exercise due care, negligent driving and driving an unsafe vehicle, Baio said.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pigeon-mandec19,0,1843122.story?coll=chi_tab01_lay

Related articles:

Pigeon Man of Lincoln Square
By Barbara Mahany
Tribune staff reporter
September 19, 2004

Except for his lips, you would think he was made out of stone, the man who sits, hours on end, on the red fire hydrant on Western Avenue, just north of Lawrence, pigeons by the dozens perched on him. Pigeons on his head. Pigeons on his shoulders and right down his arms. Pigeons poised on each palm. Pigeons clinging to his chest. Pigeons on his lap. Pigeons on his thighs. Pigeons, of course, perched on each foot.

The pigeons peck and coo, occasionally flutter their wings. Sometimes even scatter. But not the man, the man is motionless. You might mistake him for a statue. Joseph Zeman, 73, commonly known as the Pigeon Man of Lincoln Square, can sit for hours, barely flinching a muscle. Except for those lips.He coos right back to the birds. He kisses them, right on their iridescent necks, flat on the point of their sharp little beaks. He nuzzles them, rubs his nose in their wings, the herringbone of feathers all black and charcoal and pewter and white. He calls them by name, his favorites, Whitey and Brownie. "Sure, sure," he coos, stroking them with his words. "There, there," he clucks. He worries when one is missing in action. "Where you been? Where you been?" he asks when the prodigal pigeon finally flutters back.

Like some kind of pigeon dentist, he tenderly plucks a feather that's stuck in a beak. He loves them as though they're his best friends in the world, and pretty much that's what they are. They wait, then swoop "Soon as I take a seat, they want to be loved and kissed like a mama's baby," he says, taking a seat late one recent afternoon, as a raincloud of pigeons alights from a roof and hovers in for a landing. "Like I'm their father, and they're my child." See 'em waiting here now, they know I'm coming. They're waiting for me so they can say, `Here I am, here I am, do what you want to do with me. We're not worried about you.' I just tell 'em all, `You're my baby, you're my baby too.'"

Within seconds, it is getting hard to make out the man from under the pigeons. Drivers crane their necks. Truck drivers roll down their windows. Folks on the sidewalk sometimes slap $5 or $10 in his hand. He keeps track, in a neat little ledger up in the attic where he lives a few blocks away, of how much he has collected. Three hundred dollars since the first of the year, he says proudly, all of it used to buy his pigeon supplies, the unpopped popcorn kernels (the primo pigeon food, he calls it), the bags of white rice, the loaves of Deerfield Farms enriched white bread, the Maurice Lenell oatmeal cookies, the plain old birdseed that comes in 50-pound sacks, which he breaks down into zip-top plastic bags. Old baby food jars he fills each morning and afternoon with rice or popcorn kernels, seven jars in all, each time he heads to the hydrant.

Twice a day, at least, once in the morning, once late afternoon, you can darn near count on a pigeon-man sighting: Shuffling down Western Avenue, there's Zeman on his way to his hydrant, black canvas bag slung over his very stooped shoulders, suspenders holding up his navy blue janitor's pants that seem maybe a size or two too big."

All my life I had so much backstabbing at home, real problems there. I got to love the animals more, so trustworthy. Fifty years, all I heard was `Shut up, shut up.' I needed help at home 'cause I was handicapped. They took advantage of me. Epileptic fits since the day I was born."Because I had so much trouble at home, I learned not to say nothing, keep to myself, just so I can't be wrong anymore. So they came up to me [the pigeons]; I appreciated the friendship out of a bird more than a person. They're wordless. They come up with pure appreciation."

Building trust:

After more than half a century with the birds, Zeman says, he has learned many a lesson. "Stay quiet all your life. Nothing but trust and honesty, low profile all the time, just like I'm another bird, sitting there. They sit on me all day and half into the night. That's where I got something about me that nobody else has."

Zeman, who's retired now, had a newsstand at LaSalle and Division Streets for 47 years. That's where he first got friendly with the pigeons."At my business, the pigeons came down on me. After six months, they took a chance on me. First No. 1, then when No. 2 sees it's OK, he gives it a try. Then comes No. 3. Every day, every day for six months, you gotta come out. Have something for 'em. Patience and time, little by little."He moved up to the fire hydrant on Western Avenue after he sold the newsstand seven years ago. He comes every day if it's dry. He comes because he sees his sitting on the hydrant as the most important work he has ever done."

I'm really advertising to the public how easy it is to be good without an attitude; it's just as easy to show decency as it is to hate today." Sadly, he says, not everyone sees it that way."Some people hate me because of this," he says. "They say, `Oh, they're disease carriers,' and all that. People that are fancy and don't want to deal with a dropping, they come up to me with those remarks. They're jealous, jealous because the birds aren't afraid of me."

One of the people who say that is Sheila Magee, who lives not far from the hydrant where Zeman and the pigeons roost."He represents a huge danger to the neighborhood," she begins. "What we're talking about here are flying rodents, nothing less." Magee outlines the vile things she contends the pigeons are carrying into the neighborhood. She draws a vivid picture of how the birds feed off food strewn near sewers. The way she paints it, pigeons are Public Nuisance No. 1 when it comes to the health of the masses.

She would be wrong, as a matter of fact."Pigeons are not a public health hazard," proclaims Dr. Joel McCullough, medical director of environmental health for the Chicago Department of Public Health. There is a fungus, he says, that can be carried in pigeon droppings, but it has not been detected in Chicago as far back as anyone at the department can remember. "Nobody in public health is losing any sleep over pigeons." And, in fact, Zeman is breaking no law. The city, according to the corporation counsel's office, has no ordinance prohibiting the feeding of pigeons.

There is a general nuisance ordinance, but it is rarely if ever used for pigeon feeders. The Chamber of Commerce in Lincoln Square does get an occasional complaint, and only a couple of weeks ago the office heard from Magee. But even the guy in charge of maintenance for JCDecaux, the folks who tend to the city's bus shelters, has asked his guys to lay off Zeman and let him roost his pigeons in peace. And Heidi Hurtado, who works in a dress shop right across Western Avenue, makes a point of peering out the window to take in the Zen of Zeman."Peace, he makes me feel at peace," she says. "It's joyful to see somebody so loving and caring to pigeons. A lot of people don't like pigeons. Through everything that's going on in the world right now, it's just nice to see a sight like that."`On their own free will' As the heat of another day drops away, Zeman is shuffling to his post from the bus stop a block away. When asked if he has ever thought of simply taking the birds home, he answers: "I've thought of it. But they're outdoor birds, they're meant to be on their own free will. They'd die from grief."When they come up to me, it's got to be on their own free will, not being grabbed or grasped. That's what makes them so happy when you come back."

With that he slips off his shoulder bag and settles onto his hydrant, and the flock descends. He raises both arms, palms skyward, the veneration pose."Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah," he coos away as day turns to dusk. He won't leave his birds until the black cloak of midnight comes to wrap them in, safe until dawn, when Zeman, sure as the rising sun, will once again take on the pose of St. Francis of a city.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pigeonman-feature_webdec19,0,4740879.story?c

Permanent memorial to 'the Pigeon Man'?
JOE ZEMAN Called birds his children
December 21, 2007
BY KARA SPAK Staff

Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com

Roses, candles and a smattering of birdseed marked a fire hydrant in the 4800 block of North Western on Wednesday night in memory of Joe Zeman Jr., known to many Chicagoans simply as "the Pigeon Man."

Zeman, 77, died Tuesday after being hit by a car on Devon. The simple, mysterious man captured the attention of passersby who gawked at the dozens of pigeons roosting on and around him -- birds he called his children.

Kevin Kitchen, a Lincoln Square resident, was drawn Wednesday to the hydrant where Zeman and the pigeons merged to remember a man who was "going out and caring for the least of God's creatures."

Kitchen is talking to "neighbors, friends and strangers" about the possibility of a permanent memorial to Zeman in Lincoln Square. Kitchen proposed hanging artistic, locally designed birdhouses on lampposts near the statute of Abraham Lincoln at Lawrence and Western, across the street from Zeman's usual perch.

"He was such a unique person, he's hard to forget," he said.

Those interested in a "Pigeon Man" memorial can reach Kitchen at L7Bird@gmail.com . Kitchen has also started a "Remember the Bird Man" group on Facebook.