Killing pigeons in cities
 

How do you feel about killing pigeons?

I find them to be problematic. I think they are flying rats and people seem to like feeding them. They are all over the place where they have tried many passive things like fake owls, spike strips to prevent landing, encouraging falcons to nest and breed. Yet there still seems to be so many pigeons.

In my neighborhood we're even trapping and killing squirrels. They have become a total nuisance gnawing on wires, scaling sides of buildings and entering apartments as high as the 6th floor.

Squirrels where I live have reached the 11th floor just climbing up the side of the building. I also feel that they are flying rats. That being said I am pro-culling them down I just think it has to be done as humanely and painless as possible.

I'm not passionate about saving them but I do hope they're being killed humanely.

Can they be eaten? Squab is available on many a fine menu after all.

I suppose they wouldn't meet the equivalent FDA standards but I wonder what could be done to bring them up to standard. You could feed the homeless etc, etc...

Pigeons belong in Venice. Otherwise, their population should be controlled.

We dissected pigeons (rock doves) in high school in advanced biology, so I have no problem with culling their numbers, as the birds can be useful even after death.

I also have no problem with the fact that the city of Bend, Oregon recently decided to cull some Canada geese that were giving them trouble. They had the geese butchered and served to local needy. Critics condemn feeding euthanized geese to needy | kgw.com | KGW News | Portland, Oregon Personally, having visited/used the park where these geese congregate, I was GLAD that they culled the geese because they had established a unnatural population there that wasn't migrating, and the poop generated by the geese was disgusting. The park's Mirror Pond is a popular spot to end a float of the Deschutes River, and it's gross to have to try and pick your way through the goose poop around the pond to get out of the river.

I also think that in addition to culling, we should consider a public service campaign to remind people that they should not feed wildlife. Feeding wildlife is one of the main things that contributes to these kinds of problems. Here's an article about a wild turkey shoot in a town near mine: Philomath goes for the kill on turkeys Why did these wild turkeys become a nuisance? Yeah, that's right: people fed them.

I'm all for population control of any species. I don't live in an area with an over-population of pigeons, but I've never heard anyone say "I like pigeons." Take 'em down.

I'm confused about how they kill the pigeons. They're obviously trapped in the net, by the way it looks super efficient, but how are they actually killed off?

Okay, but... Watching that video, my thought is, what next? You've got a huge net of flapping, writhing, struggling birds... And then...?

and then there's maybe this recipe....

I work with Pigeons in my field of work... I do electrical service work on billboards in Calgary... to me they are a huge problem and if I could, I would be all over those rats-with-wings.... they dive bomb you if you're near their nest and I have come close to going beserk on their flying asses because they scare the shit out of me, but I digress... I am a drama queen. I wouldn't be against it but then again, could we compare the explosion of Pigeons to human populations? Pigeons thrive in the environment their given, my Dad has them in his barn and they explode into urban centres, who are we to decide that they're such a problem when mother nature would say we're invading on the way things have been done for millions of years?

Streak....

ps... thread jack

Fly away, my brothers! Lest what happened to me, happens to thee!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...iusMCN2P28.jpg

It had to be done....

Messy and noisy creatures. iIn the late 1950s Don Martin did a great cartoon about killing them.

Thanks freeload. Love that song.

THAT!

as it says in the article.

Just the other day I saved a pigeon and now you want to undo all of my work?!?!?

Promote the return of the delicacy.

Yeah... as in eat them.

Really, that's what they were brought to this continent for.

They're pretty good, much like quail.

Thanks. Posting that was the only reason I visited this thread. :-)

they were eaten in the U.S., they are still raised and eaten in many places, and as said before, they were often a delicacy- they ought to be again....

I ate one in Thailand. I've moved on.

I don't want to consume anything that eats moldy bread thrown by insane people in the park. I'm sure some less fortunate people would, but not I.

So you never eat lobster, crawdads, crab, shrimp, pork, etc?

They eat MUCH worse shit.

It so happens that I do eat some scavengers of the animal world. Lobster, crawfish, crab, shrimp, pork, and I'll raise you one: catfish, classic bottom feeders. The difference between pigeons and the food you listed is that some of it is farm raised, so in theory it should be cleaner than wild caught (pigeons). I realize this argument is extremely weak on my part, because if it tastes good, I'll eat it. Looking at pigeons the way I do, dirty creatures, I wouldn't want to eat one, but I'm sure if I had a more open mind I wouldn't be opposed to trying it out.

It's probably of the "don't knock it until you try it" variety.

You can actually hunt them in my state (albeit in the hunting regulations they are referred to as "Rock Dove".) I have a buddy who was, among other business ventures, involved in varmint/pest control. His personal mission was to eradicate the pigeon population in the area. There are still a few around, as is to be expected with the amount of grain elevators we have around, but a few years ago they started actually using a form of pigeon specific birth control (I shit you not) in local feed sites and the population has dropped substantially. Otherwise, I say trap them, grain feed them for a few weeks, and feed them to the homeless/support your local food banks/high end restaurants. Dressed out, they are larger than quail, and are about the same size as a cornish game hen...just sayin' is all....

when i was a kid we bred pigeons. we had so many at one stage that we needed to cull them.

they inevitably ended up on the dinner table. we had them in a stew for dinner that night. a little boney, but just like chicken.

Just like I am thee, & why I hope they're eating their captured.

The only problem I see with capturing them for food is the cost. It's probably much less expensive to kill them than it is to give them out for food or make them for food. That would be a ton of money being poured directly into the homeless population, something the government (at least around here) is not known for.

What we need is a friendly-looking chipper-shredder with a hunk of bread hanging in front of its toothy grin.

PULL!

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ypigeonmap.jpg

My first job at the gunclub.:) There must be a hundred ways to say pull!:rolleyes:

Lindy

Offering a bounty and letting some of the city's unemployed go after them (in a safe manner) could be much cheaper than hiring professionals.

Whenever I hear people say that there are too many pigeons, seals, Canada Geese, wolves, bears, deer, you name it.....I alway wonder about the 7 billion people on this planet.

The secret to pigeon control is quite simple - don't give them food and don't allow them to roost in structures.

Not as simple as you make it sound to be. Otherwise we'd have gotten rid of all rodents known to man. Rodents roost in structures and acquire food through other means.

If we could engage the squirrels & the pigeons in eating each other we'd have less familiars.

It makes sense to cull the pigeon population. I lived in Europe for a number of years and saw a lot of their handiwork, specifically the city mentioned in the article as well as Madrid.

I like the thought of using them for something else rather than just killing them and throwing them away.

Massive pigeon compost pile, anyone?

Don't we have an agreement with the pidgins they move out of the way of cars and we look the other way when it comes to statues? Did they violate the treaty and we now have to kill them?

Payback's a bitch: