I URGE Wycombe District Council to move away from their barbaric, ineffective and costly proposal to kill pigeons, and to instead consider the humane and intelligent alternatives to reduce the pigeon population humanely.
Lethal culling through the use of birds of prey, etc, will produce some temporary reduction in pigeon population numbers but, just as with the culling of stray dogs in urban environments overseas, the area vacated by the culled pigeons will be taken up by other pigeons, unless the council is prepared to maintain the intensive use of a hawk in perpetuity, all making their proposal an expensive and inhumane solution.
Scientific research carried out in Switzerland by the University of Basel, between 1988 and 1992, clearly demonstrates that killing pigeons as a control option is not only expensive but also counter-productive.
During a census in 1963, the City of Basel was found to have a pigeon population of 20,000 birds and in the following 24 years the city council used every means at their disposal to reduce the population, including killing over 100,000 pigeons inhumanely. In 1988, a count revealed that Basel’s wild pigeon population was nearer 30,000 pigeons, an increase of 33% over and above the figure of 20,000 birds counted in the 1963 census.
This dramatic increment in flock size confirmed that the city council’s lethal control policy, operated between 1963 and 1985, had not only been totally ineffective, but had actually resulted in an increase in flock size of nearly one third. As a result, the city council realized that the problem had to be tackled at source
Between 1988 and 1990 the City of Basel introduced a massive information campaign to educate the public about pigeons and the relationship between feeding and resultant overpopulation.
Alongside the campaign, the council asked the University of Basel to carry out a scientific study to find a solution. This well-documented research concluded that killing pigeons had no effect on reducing flock size and in most cases resulted in an increase in pigeon numbers.
Based on the view that lethal control could not reduce population size the research team looked at non-conventional and quite diverse methods.
The idea of providing artificial breeding facilities where eggs could be removed and replaced with dummy eggs was put into practice. During the four-year research period, over 1,200 eggs each year were removed and replaced with dummy ones. Over a 50-month period this had the effect of reducing the pigeon population in these test areas by a staggering 50 per cent. In addition, large quantities of pigeon excrement were removed.
It is Germany that is now setting the example. The city of Augsburg voted to improve and expand its humane pigeon control programme by the creation of pigeon lofts in converted roof voids in buildings. In just one year, the council removed 1,200 eggs from seven pigeon lofts.
The use of dovecotes and designated feeding areas in public places combined with the use of lofts has also helped local authorities and sites in the UK to concentrate and control pigeon numbers in a humane but highly effective manner.
Nottingham City Hospital was awarded the RSPCA Best Practices Award (2003) for adopting a non-lethal strategy. The hospital’s pigeon population has decreased dramatically down to 65 birds and this is from a start figure of 1,200. WDC, please consider an intelligent and humane alternative. The scientific proof and evidence is well documented and should not be ignored. There are control regimes that are 100% non-lethal, sustainable, inexpensive and publicly acceptable. That aside, the people of High Wycombe will not react well to the potential scenario of a bird of prey tearing a pigeon apart and then eating it alive in the town centre in front of children, tourists and residents.
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