(Australia)Bird deaths condemned

[Guest guest]

Bird deaths condemned.

Canning Times, Tuesday November 27th, 2001

 

Perth Animal Welfare Society President

Marguerite Wegner has accused Canning City Council

of acting inhumanely in the way it kills pigeons living

on the roof of the old Cannington town hall on the Albany Highway.

 

Ms Wegner said the council had built a ramp enticing pigeons

into the loft and into a trap containing poison. This rendered them

comatose before they were finally put down.

 

" The council said it was costing them money to clean the droppings

off the town hall, but then they went and spent $2000 to install the trap

in the roof, " she said.

 

" When you go there to pay a bill or something, the pigeons on the

ramp look so idyllic, but in reality what goes on inside the loft is

horrific. "

 

A Canning spokeswoman said the eradication process was in place

intermittently

throughout the year when the pigeons became a problem, but she said the

program was carried out in a humane way.

 

We do have a trap in the loft but most pigeons don’t actually go in the loft

so

very few are caught, " she said.

 

" Sometimes we do use poison that makes the pigeons comatose, but then they

are

taken away to a vet and put down. "

 

The spokeswoman said a number of buildings along the Albany Highway

strip had problems with pigeons.

 

" It’s a big problem because they roost on the roof and their faeces falls

into the gutter

and erodes it, " she said.

 

" I think the message is: " If people would stop feeding the pigeons,

they wouldn’t hang around quite so much. "

 

Ms Wegner said she felt the council should look for other more humane

alternatives like the ones being used in England.

 

" There are lots of different devices to deter pigeons, like the use of fake

birds of prey, " she said. Humans have put a man on the moon,

so I’m sure we can figure out how to deter pigeons. "