Pigeon Advocate sent this post yesterday. She suggests we check out. Save the Pigeons, the London group who cares for
London birds.
Pigeons were brought here (probably not of their
liking) from Europe and do not (like most native birds) eat insects to
survive. How sad for them — we are an insect festival. These birds
were mostly brought here by pigeon fanciers and/or for sport (pigeon
racing) and in fact, pigeons have been used in war (one even got a
medal of honor – Pigeon Joe).Since they are here — we brought them
and then abandoned them to the streets. They used to survive on hay
seed or wild grass seed — but not much of that nowadays. So what do we
do as a community? Allow them to continue to scavange garbage (they do)
and contract diseases (botulism is the most popular) live about one
year, procreate, t hen die? IIn their native environs, pigeons live up
to 15 years. In Brooklyn, they average 2. If they’re lucky. "They’re
here, they’re queer, get used to it?" They are here. Many people love
their enthusiasm for life, their ability to dance with joy at just the
offering of a bread crumb. Contray to your posts, pigeons help rid the
streets of bread crumbs and/or other edibles which helps reduce the
likelihood of rodents.The problem comes when ignorant people leave
hardened bread (they cannot eat, their beaks are very soft) and/or
other horrible garbage in the street. They should issue licenses for
people to leave responsible seed.The city is not comprised solely of
pigeon haters. Witness the nycaudubon.org’s very large membership as
well as the many (over half a dozen) pigeon rescue groups in our town.
Instead of thinking of ways to starve them to death and/or to leave
them tons o’ garbage, perhaps finding a consolidated and responsible
way to have them be a part of our community would make sense. Pigeon
safe islands; and/or other innovative architecture.Wildlife
rehabilitators would love to work together on solutions. For those who
posted that the pigeon advocate (me) needs to get a life. This is my
life. Caring for the lowest of the low. I am in good company. Consult
your bible. Oh, no, now someone will post that I have delusions of
martyrdom. You just can’t win, now can you?
“We brought them here” is the story of most invasive species. Starlings were brought to this country by Victorian wingnut Eugene Schiffelin in 1890. He wanted to introduce to this hemisphere every bird mentioned in Shakespeare. Many invasive plants which were first introduced in gardens and other ornamental plantings now cause billions of dollars of damages annually.