A big pat on the back for North Lincolnshire Council over its current Brigg anti-pigeon campaign. There are posters in shops and warnings on "street furniture" in the town centre.
In terms of spreading disease, pigeons are likened to rats on the posters.
There are just too many of these birds in Brigg town centre and they make a real mess on pavements and shops. We've had the problem for some years. And as the council rightly says, making food available to them does not help in keeping the numbers down. How many young they raise is proportional to what's available to eat.
As we were photographing the above poster in a Wrawby Street shop window yesterday morning, we turned to find a group of pigeons pecking away merrily just a few yards away. Others we coo-coo-ing on a nearby roof. Can’t they read?
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3 comments:
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but like many folks, I was guilty of believing the urban myth that pigeons 'were rats with wings' - until I read the facts.....
For example,
The British Government Chief Veterinary Officer, when addressing the House of Lords in 2000 on the issue of pigeons in Trafalgar Square was asked if the large number of pigeons in the Square represented a health risk to human beings. The Chief Veterinary Officer told The House that in his opinion they did not represent a risk to human health.
Mike Everett, spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said, in The Big Issue Magazine, February 2001: "The whole 'rats with wings' thing is just emotive nonsense. There is no evidence to show that they (pigeons) spread disease.”
The general concern should concentrate upon their droppings, which deface structures and not on the birds themselves.
A specific concern is that mass bird droppings, as found in a confined roost, can feed a fungus that when dried and disturbed can create airborne causes for breathing problems, such as Histoplasmosis - but this is really no different from the dangers associated with chicken coops and similarly high density bird roosts.
Essentially, if pigeon numbers need control, the focus should be on the mess that their droppings create on the pavements and not on the misinformation that they carry diseases.
Another urban myth that needs to be diluted - re 'that one is always 6 feet from a rat' - in reality the distance is more likely to be 200 feet.
I'm not implying that rats are less harmful to human health then is usually portrayed. Rats do need severe culling, but pigeons are a different kettle of fish, sorry, animal.
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ps Above - That was the cat walking over the keyboard.....He heard the mention of pigeons and got a bit excited....
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