City Council May Ban Feeding of Pigeons

The latest menace from which the City Council is attempting to protect New Yorkers is Columba livia.

Council Member Simcha Felder, a Democrat of Brooklyn, will announce legislation today to ban the feeding of pigeons anywhere in the city. He will also call for the appointment of a pigeon tsar to manage the population of the birds. In addition, he will recommend looking into further action, including introducing pigeon-killing predators or providing the birds, like New York City school children, with artificial means of birth control.

"The people of New York are sick and tired of dodging pigeons and their droppings as they walk around the city," Mr. Felder said yesterday. "The sidewalks, parks, streets and bridges of our City are littered with evidence that something needs to be done. The government needs to take responsibility for this issue and end the free rein of pigeons in our city."

According to the Encyclopedia of the City of New York, the Rock Pigeon was originally introduced to the city from Europe. That continent has already experimented with pigeon control measures. In Venice, where tourists flock to St. Mark's square to have their picture taken with the city's famous birds, city officials have taken measures such as removing and killing sick pigeons and placing birth control in birdseed, the Associated Press reported. The mayor of London, Kenneth Livingstone, from whom Mayor Bloomberg is taking the idea of congestion pricing, has called pigeons "rats with wings," and last month instituted fines of up to $1052 on persons caught feeding pigeons in Trafalgar Square, according to the BBC.

Pigeon problems closer to home are already rousing other New York City council members, such as Minority Leader James Oddo, to action. After a recent $124 million renovation, the St. George ferry terminal in Staten Island has been plagued by the birds, which inhabit the high ceilings, terrorize commuters, and challenge the cleaning staff with droppings. The Staten Island Advance has reported that efforts to stop them with spikes, nets, and other measures have done little to help, leading to more drastic plans, such as installing electric wire tracks to (non-lethally) zap roosting pigeons. Mr. Oddo has called on the city to implement a birth control program to help solve the ferry terminal's pigeon problem, using OvoControl P, a chemical that prevents pigeon eggs from hatching. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals gave the procedure their seal of approval and organized a similar project in Hollywood this year dubbed "Citizen Pigeon."

"I know sometimes this doesn't pass the laugh test," Mr. Oddo said yesterday. "And it's easy for cynical people to say 'Don't they have anything better to worry about than pigeons?' But I'm not worried about pigeons — I'm worried about commuters having to bob and weave to dodge these birds swooping and pooping."

Mr. Oddo described Mr. Felder's report as "well researched and well written," and said that while he had not yet decided whether to support its proposals, he was glad to see the issue brought to the public's attention.

The associate curator of the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, George Barrowclough, was skeptical that introducing hawks would have much effect on the pigeon population. "I think the pigeon population is too large. Pigeons can easily outbreed hawks," he said. "To control pigeons you basically have to cut down on their food supply somehow. Birth control would work if there's actually a medication that works, but the obvious way to reduce the population is to just cut down on the food their getting and that means stopping people from feeding. A law that people actually obey, that might work. I think there are already lots of signs saying do not feed pigeons around the city that are basically ignored."

While the pigeons have their enemies on the City Council, they also have their defenders among the city's population.

A block on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn was recently plastered with posters urging witnesses to report to the police or to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals anyone running over pigeons with a car.

"Pigeons are considered property of New York State and no one is permitted to take any action to kill or capture pigeons without a permit from New York State," the posters warn, adding that poisoning pigeons is punishable by up to $5000 in fines and even jail time. "The dept. of health has never reported one incident of disease transmitted from pigeon to human," the posters insist. "Pigeons do not carry any of the diseases associated with rodents."