Russ Osmond and Harley Smithson III have a very unique hobby, raising and racing homing pigeons. They call their feathered friends “Thoroughbreds of the Sky,” like race horses.
Osmond is the president of Cross Roads Racing Pigeon Club. The club has about 30 members. He says his birds get better care than him because his wife tends to them the most. The birds will sell for as much as $50 to $100,000, although they give birds to beginners.
Each bird wears a computer chip on its leg at 10 days old. Info on the chip states the national organization, year of birth, club name and individual number. You can’t race them without a band with a chip.
Osmond keeps sexes separate and puts them together to motivate them when released. In other words, do the boys follow the girls home?
You can calculate how fast they fly in yards per minute. The birds will fly 100 to 600 miles in a race, and they can be home in one day after flying 600 miles.
There are hundreds of different varities of pigeons, such as a Chinese owl that has a certain turn-up of its feathers.
As a rule, the birds are very affectionate animals and want to return home. That’s one reason they are called homing pigeons.
The coop is set up with a shelf on the outside that they land on to walk over a computer chip sensor that reads and records all the birds’ info. It’s called a Benzing clocking system.
Osmond feeds the pigeons a special mix from Europe. It has different grains like corn, beans, sunflower seed and milo. Pigeons have to have grit to process their food, like granite, oyster shell, charcoal and minerals.
Osmond has 30 birds and it takes 19 days to hatch an egg and another 30 days to move them into an older group. After the birds have feathered out, he trains them to go into the loft to be fed. He whistles to signal them for supper. They start flying at two months old.
They are totally tame birds although sometimes they are leery to come into the coop after a long run, so he sends up a bird to bring them on down.
The Queen of England has homing pigeons. If you go online to Pacoma Films, you can see a lot of neat stuff. If you’re interested in pigeons, give Osmond a call at 307-649-3181.
Smithson is an official race starter, not like the Indy 500 with a flag. Harley transports the pigeons to the release site. This weekend he is going to Columbia, Missouri, for the birds to fly 250 miles back home.
A few of the good old boys at the check station today are Mike Frakes, Larry Sample, Osmond, Ralph Yagle, Steve DeGroote, Jerry Hollingsworth and Ron Deisher. They are from all walks of life.
DeGroote is a coach in the Indiana High School Baseball Hall of Fame. Deisher makes a living by selling and racing pigeons. He was in the insurance business and had a lot of stress, so he started a pigeon business to sell them all over the country as well as other countries. He shows me the Banks of the Wabash website that has pictures of birds that won past races. He says they earned bragging rights.
Frakes is a coon hunter from way back, and Sample is a good old country boy who loves to go on wagon train rides with his team of horses pulling a covered wagon. Sample has been a teacher and owned a country store.
Bigger races reward big money. Deisher said the toughest race in the world is in Johannesburg, South Africa, with first place paying $200,000. Total payout is over $1 million.
There will be 7,000-10,000 birds in the race. The birds are quarantined for six weeks in a loft, and then released into a fly pen that is covered to exercise for three to four weeks. In October, they train by releasing them a few miles away, and they start racing at 60 miles in the second week of November. The end of January is the toughest race from the weather being 100 degrees and 90% humidity with thunderstorms. A good year has 2,500 birds finish the race.
Deisher says Mike Gaines from Granger, Indiana, sold a bird for $100,000. An average top quality bird will be $25,000 to $30,000 from the African Race. A bird named Bolt was sold for $400,000 from Europe to someone in China. Males are more valuable than females.
Jeff Jones from New Castle has 18 breeding pairs with a total of 75 birds. He’s had them for over 45 years. He says it’s very enjoyable and gives you a peace of mind.
After all, birds of a feather flock together!
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
It is filo pastry filled with minced pigeon meat and almonds.
A bit different to the bacon sarnies of UK golf clubs but then golfing in Marrakech is different, too.
And you won’t have to contend with freezing temperatures either.
I was at the Royal Palm resort in February, and despite views of the snow-capped Atlas mountains in the background, it was 28C.
Flights from Gatwick to Marrakech take three hours 20 minutes.
Then it is just a ten-minute drive to the city centre with its hotels and courses.
That meant we could sneak a quick round in at the Royal Palm before we even checked in at the Four Seasons hotel.
When I did finally make it to my Garden Room there, I found a massive king-size bed, a separate dressing room and a bathroom with its own postcode.
Outside was an immense balcony with room for a table and chairs plus a cushion-filled nook.
Even in February it was warm enough for a pre-dinner beer on the terrace before tucking in to local cuisine of pigeon pasties, chicken and fish tagine.
The Moroccan wine and beer went down very well, too.
With it being a mainly Muslim country, I had pretty much assumed this would be a dry trip.
Not the case at all. Locals are happy to have a beer or two and are extremely proud of their Casablanca lager.
The next morning it was off to the jewel of the golfing trip at Assoufid.
The desert course, which again features stunning views of the Atlas mountains, is only three years old and was voted Africa’s best new course in 2016 by the World Golf Awards.
But be prepared to wave goodbye to a few balls when you play the cluster of holes surrounding the Dip of Death, a canyon running right through the course.
By now it was time for a little local culture and a trip to the world-famous Jemaa el-Fnaa square.
In the space of ten minutes you can come across snake charmers, get lost in the warrens of the souk marketplace and try the local street food which includes anything from the freshest orange juice to huge pans of fried snails.
The 12th century Koutoubia Mosque towers over everything, despite only being 77 metres high, as local law dictates no other building can be taller.
We sought sanctuary and dinner in one of the riads — boutique-style hotels in the heart of the city.
On our last day, we squeezed in one more round at the splendidly named Palmeraie Palace golf resort.
This was holiday golf at its best, not too taxing and the chance to give the ball a good smack.
There are three loops of nine holes to choose from.
If you’ve not had enough after all that wild swishing, the golf-obsessed can pop to the Four Seasons spa — where they will soothe your aching muscles with a golf-ball massage.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A missing bird of prey with a habit of landing on people’s shoulders has been found.
Mark Render, 25, from Washington, had stressed the Harris hawk would not attack residents or their pets.
“In the wild – this kind of hawk lives in the desert – they’ll sit on each others’ shoulders to get a better vantage point,” he said.
The bird was found by a dog walker in trees near Princess Anne Park and enticed down with a day-old chick.
Mr Render said his pet, Ares, was “normally friendly” but could be frightened of dogs and unfamiliar people.
Image captionThe hawk could have travelled miles in the two weeks he was missing, his owner said
He had offered a reward after the bird escaped from its enclosure when wind blew the door open.
The two-and-a-half-year-old hawk was bought for £350 as a young bird. It has a 1m (3ft) wingspan.
It is used to a diet of day-old chicks and quail but would hunt pigeons and rabbits in the wild, Mr Render said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — If feral peafowl caused enough of a nuisance in 1990s Tampa Bay, Florida, you’d call Bryan Cleveland.
“You’d have 150 peacocks in a very upper-class neighborhood,” he said. “And every morning when they’d wake up, they’d see a peacock on the roof of their $110,000 Mercedes — you know what I’m saying — and just ripping it to pieces.”
Cleveland was one of just a few nuisance wildlife removal outfits in that area then. He said the work pitted him against all kinds of animals.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
We all see a lot of pigeons around us every day; sometimes we do not notice them, sometimes we feed them, but maybe they need more than that.
On this unusual video footage, a man offers to embrace a pigeon. The dove does not think for a long time and accepts the offer. He enjoys cuddling with the man’s hand and he seems to like it very much. It turns out pigeons love to hug! Let’s see how it happened.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A downtown Mt. Pleasant building owner has until the end of the month to take action against pigeons roosting in his storefront awning or face a misdemeanor citation from the city.
The hard deadline was handed to Norm Curtiss – owner of the building that houses Downtown Discount – as social media buzzed through September with community members wondering why significant amounts of pigeon excrement were allowed to build up on the sidewalks under the store’s awning.
Curtiss declined to comment on the issue.
City officials say that pigeon problem areas have been discussed for years and, while some business owners have taken steps to address roosting and nesting areas, others haven’t been successful with attempts or haven’t had the means to do so.
Further, a desire to gain compliance rather than using enforcement, coupled with a long summer filled with flood damage assessment and also a lack of specific pigeon dropping action plans spelled out in city code, prolonged official action, the city contends.
A roosting and nesting population of pigeons is not a new issue in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
Two years ago the city hired Bob Andrews, a pest control expert at Central Michigan University, to help with preventing the same problem.
At the time, Andrews and his team eliminated 100 pigeons from the downtown area and evaluated businesses for issues that would contribute to roosting and nesting pigeons if not addressed, according to documents obtained by the Morning Sun through the Freedom of Information Act.
Business owners were asked in general to remove trash from alleyways, to close up broken windows and to clean and close up awnings.
Andrews also suggested that bird slides and spikes could be used on ornate trim and facades to prevent birds from roosting.
“If downtown had proper deterrence and exclusion a small population could be managed under bridges or overpasses… with follow-through from business owners and property managers you will make a significant difference,” Andrews wrote.
At the time, many business owners hee ded the advice, said Downtown Development Director Michelle Sponseller, who was cautiously optimistic in September of 2015 after the pigeon culling.
“Although this is terrific news there are lingering related issues that we and various property owners need to address so that we don’t end up back where we were with pigeons in a year or two,” she wrote to several city leaders.
Indeed, by the end of 2016, those same city leaders were again talking about a booming pigeon population roosting and nesting in those places where Andrews’ advice was unheeded.
That included the awning of Downtown Discount, where chicken wire intended to keep pigeons out only appears to make the area even more like a coop for the birds.
With just over a year of experience heading Mt. Pleasant’s code enforcement, Assistant Fire Chief Mike Dunham started 2017 seriously looking into how to best address an again-growing problem of pigeon droppings on Mt. Pleasant sidewalks; he hoped for compliance from building owners.
“Our goal is to be proactive,” he said. “We get more ’buy-in’ and we can educate on regulations if they voluntarily comply. I hope they do it because they want to beautify the city. For the community.”
In a round-robin email started in June between Dunham, Sponseller, city manager Nancy Ridley, Community Services and Economic Development Director William Mrdeza, Fire Chief Rick Beltinck, and Director of Public Safety Paul Lauria possible legal enforcement options were discussed based on an opinion shared among the group from the city’s attorney.
Citing attorney-client privilege, the city withheld the opinion from the FOIA request; the emails indicate the attorney offered two possible options and also questioned whether a property owner can actually be the cause of pigeon droppings on sidewalks.
Ultimately on June 21 after speaking with Curtiss yet again, Dunham asked the group for more time to allow voluntary compliance.
“The city attorney is not overly confident we would be successful in prosecuting property owners for allowing pigeons to roost in their awnings,” Dunham wrote. “I spoke with (Curtiss) yesterday for quite some time… it’s my feeling he doesn’t want them either.”
A week later, historic flooding in Isabella County pulled Dunham from general code enforcement in the city to damage assessment for the entire county, changing his priorities through the summer.
In that time, no progress was made on the Downtown Discount awning as questions started to percolate through the community about the fecal matter covered sidewalks in the center of downtown.
As the problem worsened and social media pigeon excrement buzz peaked, Dunham got what he thought was positive news – not only did Curtiss say he would remove the awning over the Labor Day weekend he did, at least in part; the canvas covering was gone.
“I was hopeful that this completed compliance and I headed downtown thinking I would be celebrating,” Dunham said. “Then I saw that underneath that awning was a more permanent structure; a wooding awning with a steel covering.”
A few more weeks of stalled progress on the removal, and Dunham sent Curtiss notice that under Mt. Pleasant’s nuisance code Curtiss has until Oct. 29 to follow specific action – close the awning to bird access, remove the awning completely or remove and replace with a bird-proof structure.
What will happen in court if a citation is issued is unclear, one reason the city hesitated to enforce a code in the first place.
“We like to be sure enforcement is going to be upheld,” Ridley said. “In this case we are looking to enforce a nuisance.”
In Mt. Pleasant, nuisance code in this situation isn’t as cut and dry as mowing a lawn or removing trash from a yard, Dunham said.
“Ordinances that spell out the process make it clear,” Dunham said. “But even when we are very clear on that, we still try to work with owners first..at least in those cases we have a deadline.”
Right now, city commissioners have plans to discuss a more specific blight ordinance in the city at an as-yet unscheduled work session, though pigeon excrement specifically hasn’t been discussed, Ridley said.
“My hope is that we can draft an ordinance,” Dunham said. “That we can get specific.”
Among the group of city leaders, many were quick to blame themselves for the long passing of time before taking decisive action regarding flith-covered sidewalks and for the public backlash that raged on Facebook for a few weeks.
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with me,” Ridley said. “Ultimately it’s on my shoulders.”
In the meantime things are looking brighter: at the beginning of October the sidewalks were power washed, a process requested more than a year ago by Sponseller.
The $7,300 per year expense is now a recurring contract, ensuring sidewalks are deep cleaned often enough for more basic upkeep during the rest of the year.
“That’s part of the solution ultimately,” Dunham said. “Clean the sidewalks and public places, remove roosting and nesting areas, and clear rules.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
When horse trainer Gary Portelli met Yu Long Investments’ Yuesheng Zhang earlier this week, the Chinese billionaire had one thing on his mind: pigeons.
Four days before today’s inaugural, $10 million Everest race — Mr Zhang had arrived in Sydney’s west to inspect the horse that would leap forth from his $600,000 slot in the lucrative event. “He came to the stables on Tuesday to see the horse, but he was more interested in seeing my racing pigeons,” Portelli said.
The man who trains champion racehorse She Will Reign at his farm in Warwick Farm has, since he was young, kept thousands of racing birds. They’ve been a hobby and a pastime on countless cold winter Saturdays. It’s a passion, he learned, that he shares with Mr Zhang.
“He can’t speak a word of English … It was like we were able to communicate through the birds,” he told 2GB’s Ray Hadley. “He’s in there catching birds, laughing, carrying on. I said, ‘we came away with a little bit of pigeon English together’.”
The Chinese investor recently won a pigeon race worth $800,000 in his home country.
“Racing pigeons in China have gone berserk,” Portelli said. “I find it a fascinating sport.”
There are birds bred to fly sprints, as well as middle and long distances, reaching speeds of between one and two kilometres per minute. An increasingly obscure sport that attracts several thousand people Australia-wide, pigeons — like horse racing — this week bridged the gulf between a foreign billionaire and a Sydney trainer.
Meanwhile, Portelli’s She Will Reign is a fairytale underdog. Sold as a yearling for $20,000 — a steal, in racing circles — the daughter of Manhattan Rain and Courghette was the Cinderella filly that fit the 2017 Golden Slipper.
Owned by a syndicate of 19, more than 150 friends and family turn up to support her on race day. A truckie, a carpenter and an ice-cream maker are some of those who own a tiny percentage of the horse, who has a big chance of winning the trophy today, to be presented by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.
“These (horses) are the best sprinters collectively put together for a long time,” Portelli said. “You could probably run the race 12 different times and get 12 different winners from different barrier draws. The last 100m, they’ll all be going good till then. That’s where it’ll change.”
Rossi Kewley is one of She Will Reign’s owners. “It’s crazy. This race is set up for the millionaires and billionaires, but if you’ve got the right horse it doesn’t matter,” he said. The 32-year-old ice-cream maker bought a share in February last year.
Trent Hill’s daughter, Sienna, has grown up with horses as a regular topic of family conversation.
“We’ve got a kid who doesn’t want to hear bedtime stories,” the 45-year-old truckie said. “She wants to see re-runs of She Will Reign.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Residents of an historic building have been living in a sewage and pigeon nightmare.
And it’s all because the owner of a long-closed shop has failed to keep it maintained.
The back of the shop is now being used as a pigeon loft with local birds able to fly right in.
Now fed-up neighbours Kate McGuiness and Mary McIntosh have made a public plea for action.
They are campaigning for landlord Tommy McAvenna, 72, to stump-up for repairs to his disused shop in the old Co-op building in Portland Street on Troon.
And retired Kate, addressing Troon Community Council last week, said: “An estate agent has told us the flats are unsaleable because of the mess below us.
“We should not have to live like this.
“We have pigeons flying about and nasty smells in the close.
“This is a C-listed building and when I wished to put a vented slate on the back of the roof I was told not to damage the historical nature of the place.
“Yet the front façade has been allowed to go to rack and ruin.”
Mr McAvenna, who has other property in the town, bought the shop in 1998.
It was the former premises of disgraced lawyer Peter Anderson, jailed for defrauding clients.
A letter sent to the landlord was returned to the council unopened and it lay there for six weeks, says McGuiness.
She added: “A 28 day notice has now been issued but still there has been no action.
“In mid June I stood on my doorstep to watch the Glasgow taxis coming into town.
“I was so embarrassed at the comments of the people standing there about the state of the place that I went back into my house.
“We are asking for community support in moving matters along. This is downright insanitary. As it is a private building, environmental health can only ask for access and cannot insist.”
The residents have pleaded their case to South Ayrshire Council.
Mary McIntosh said: “I am concerned about the structure of my property and am concerned about the smells.
“My kitchen has been flooded with raw sewage after it came up through the drains.”
Mr McAvenna was unavailable for comment on multiple days.
South Ayrshire Councillor Craig Mackay confirmed a formal repairs notice has now been sent.
He said: “That 28-day period is about to expire and hopefully we can more forward.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
The gloves are off. And the cat is wondering if it will be once more out of the bag. Quite possibly, it might be set among the pigeons. Which, these days appear to be a role played by our state institutions, which have become used to ruffling a few feathers here and there.
This week has seen Hafiz Saeed return to the Pakistani spotlight. For two very important reasons.
Firstly, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has refused to register the Milli Muslim League (MML) as a political party, thereby scuppering its electoral hopes for next year. This is a welcome move. And it is heartening to see that the ECP acted upon the request of the Interior Ministry, pending an independent investigation. Though not before the ‘political’ party contested the NA 120 by-election in Nawaz Sharif’s old hood.
Though, as to be expected, the MML isn’t taking any of this lying down. Prior to this latest development, it had already set up offices in Peshawar with an eye on by-polls there. Yet it’s after the ECP ruling that things have taken an interesting, if not alarming, turn. The MML says it’s suing the ECP for defamation — to the cool tune of Rs 100 million — for daring to refer to it as a proscribed outfit.
Secondly, the Lahore High Court is this week expected to move to have Hafiz Saeed, who is wanted by India for his role in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, released from house arrest unless and until the political set-up can bring concrete evidence against him of his misdemeanours. Today, all of this is a lose-lose situation for Pakistan and its international standing. Not only will this add fuel to the Trump fire about support for certain undesirables — it will undermine considerably this country’s recent calls to put the Kashmir issue back under the UN auspices, after an overdue absence.
Yet for ordinary Pakistanis, the domestic plot thickens. At the time of the MML’s infamous participation in NA 120, a retired Army officer had ‘come clean’ about what he termed as the military establishment’s strategy to mainstream — not disarm — its proxies. Last week, the head of the military’s public relations wing confirmed that he was aware of what he described as the government’s mainstreaming plan. While the Interior Ministry disclosed that it had approached the ECP upon the recommendation of the security establishment. Regardless of who is passing the buck to whom — neither the civvies nor the khakis has denied the existence of this plan.
The matter of the MML versus the ECP could have been avoided. Meaning that the government committed a gross misstep when it placed Hafeez Saeed under house arrest back in January of this year. At the time, no concrete grounds were given for his detention. Though many members of Pakistan’s religious right pointed to the timing of this, which coincided with Donald Trump taking his place in the White House hot seat and the ruling party’s intermittent flirtations with neighbouring India.
Be that as it may, the way forward for any functioning democracy is to seek relief from the courts. Thus Hafiz Saeed should have faced due process before the Anti-Terrorism Court; a process that might or might not have included access by a visiting Indian investigating team. That this was never on the cards raises questions as to whom is protecting whom; and which side would be more damaged by the fallout of such a move.
If we were the cat, we wouldn’t settle for pigeons. We would go to London to see the Queen.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
ECHUCA’S pigeon plague is no flight of fancy according to those on the frontline fighting increasing numbers of birds and worsening volumes of pigeon droppings.
It might not be in the asbestos category but there is no doubt a health risk exists because of the makeup of the bird’s droppings.
Echuca-Moama Uniting Church is now praying for intervention – divine would be fine but in the temporal space church spokesman John Ferris would be really happy if Campaspe Shire got in the game.
His church has spent close to $30,000 for temporary relief from the problem but several other large buildings in that part of town – from Campaspe College of Adult Education and the Backpackers to the Paramount Cinema to the old fire station – are facing the same problems.
“It has been suggested we could fix this problem by installing things such as spikes and ultrasonic bird repellers,” Mr Ferris said.
“We have such a repeller, it is 20 times the size suggested by Barry McDougal in a letter to the editor in the Riv,” he said.
“It’s on the church roof and it does work in the area that the speaker’s sound reaches – so the pigeons have shuffled along and now perch just outside the range of the sound.”
Mr Ferris said there is a nesting pair of peregrine falcons in the church tower and they are enthusiastically doing their bit, but at a pigeon a day they are being outbred.
“It is our hope the shire council can provide support and leadership in assisting the occupiers of affected properties (of which there are many) in an eradication process,” he said.
“We can disturb the birds nesting and roosting positions on our roof, but we are unable to rid ourselves of them totally without such council support.
“We have a request in with the shire asking for their leadership and support on this. Our thinking is an eradication program led by them on behalf of property owners; who should be asked to bear associated costs.
“But we haven’t heard anything yet.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A group of pigeons have caused havoc at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramicaby causing some damage to the playing field.
In a short amount of time, an ever increasing number of the birds have made their home on the field and are eating seed on the surface, which is cutting up the pitch.
Their presence is also problematic in terms of health and cleanliness as it could increase the chance of possibly transmitting diseases and a plan has been put in place to control the problem.
Ultrasound systems are now being used to ward them off, while spikes are being put in place in addition to prevent pigeons nesting in parts of the stadium.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A MAN rang police to report intruders on his roof – only to discover the unwanted guests were in fact pigeons.
Police were called to Egerton Court on Barrow Island this morning after a 20-year-old male resident reported that someone was attempting to gain access to his flat.
When police arrived, it turned out the noise he was hearing from his roof was in fact caused by pigeons.
However, police then realised the man was wanted and subject to a warrant for allegedly breaching a community order, and so he was arrested and taken to Barrow Police Station.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
An injured pigeon has been nursed back to health by staff at the Atlantic Vet College Wildlife Service after it was found in downtown Charlottetown in July covered in a thick, sticky substance.
The vet college is now warning about the dangers of glue traps and other sticky products.
AVC wildlife technician Fiep de Bie says a glue trap is likely the cause of the bird’s misfortune but she said it’s also possible it got into glue from a glue gun.
She hopes people will consider other ways to keep pests away so something like this doesn’t happen again.
Use other traps
“You can think about prevention…closing off areas, not having food around,” said de Bie. “But of course if you have a pest control problem, I would talk to a professional and there are more sophisticated snap traps there that kill animals instantly, instead of having them suffer.”
A pigeon that was found covered in what appeared to be glue has been saved by staff at the Atlantic Vet College. (Submitted by Fiep de Bie)
The bird was treated with oils and soap and its wings were trimmed back to get rid of the parts that were stuck together.
“Obviously being completely covered in glue and not being able to move was very stressful to him.”
The vet college had to wait for the pigeon to grow back the new feathers before it could be released.
De Bie said the bird was released back into the wild last week and is doing well.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A PIGEON racing fanatic fears his birds could be killed by peregrine falcons lured to nest on a Taunton church.
Nesting boxes have been placed on St Mary Magdalene Church to encourage a pair of falcons who roosted there this summer to return and breed.
The £7,000 project includes a webcam and is part of a nationwide effort to boost the protected peregrine falcon population.
But Michael Templeman, who has 40 pigeons in his garden loft in Wheatley Crescent, said it is causing “real concern”.
He said he has lost lots of birds to peregrines over the years and several disappeared following an attack in Taunton this summer.
Mr Templeman added: “Peregrine falcons perform savage and harrowing attacks on smaller birds such as racing pigeons, which is causing devastation among my community.
“If our birds are lucky enough to survive an attack, they become extremely disorientated, and if they’re injured it makes it impossible to train them. It’s truly heart-breaking.
“The fact there’s now a nest box at the church is a huge blow for myself and other fanciers in the area. It’s only a matter of time before our pigeons become victims.”
Lee Fribbins, of Pigeon Racing UK and Ireland, said peregrine numbers have risen since they were introduced into towns through nest boxes on high buildings.
He added: “Pigeon racing plays an important part in our country’s heritage.
“During both world wars, pigeons had a pivotal role in the success of the allies and the birds were the most decorated species of the conflicts.
“The sport also contributes almost £107 million to the UK economy every year and the fancying community provides substantial donations to many worthy charities.
“We need to make a stand to protect both racing pigeons and other small birds before they are lost forever.
“It’s imperative we investigate ways of controlling and managing the increasing population of predatory birds humanely.”
Taunton Peregrine project manager Michael Leigh-Mallory said racing pigeons are descended from the rock dove, which originally lived on cliffs, and has seen numbers shoot up due to increasing amount of food waste in towns.
“The peregrine is constantly having to adapt to an ever-changing and challenging world. It’s still a target for egg collectors and persecution and poisoning still persists,” added Mr Leigh-Mallory.
“We respect the freedom of pigeon fanciers to rear captive breed birds and fly them for sport. However, I’d hope they’d also respect the right of hundreds of others who support the project and gain enjoyment from seeing the pair of peregrines in the wild around Taunton.
“There is room for both in the skies above the town.
“The pair of peregrines are wild and have arrived at the church with no encouragement and in the event of St Mary’s not being available to nest they would select another rooftop in the area.”
He said figures suggest an estimated 2.4 million racing pigeons abscond every year and raptors account for a tiny percentage of pigeon losses.
And while there are 1,500 pairs of peregrines in the country, there are “many millions” of pigeons.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
The Shiv Sena claimed that the structure, which was being constructed by local BJP MLA Mangalprabhat Lodha, was illegal. Upping its ante against the BJP, the Shiv Sena urged the BMC to demolish a ‘kabutarkhana’ (feeding place for pigeons) at Girgaum Chowpatty on Wednesday. “That was an illegal construction and we complained to the BMC leading to its demolition,” said a local Shiv Sena vibhag pramukh Pandurang Sakpal. He added that a new, bigger kabutarkhana was being constructed at Chowpatty Bandstand since Wednesday morning in place of the one that was in existence. When contacted, Lodha said he did not want to comment on this “sensitive issue” and added that he was unaware of the action by the BMC.
Upping its ante against the BJP, the Shiv Sena urged the BMC to demolish a ‘kabutarkhana’ (feeding place for pigeons) at Girgaum Chowpatty on Wednesday. The Shiv Sena claimed that the structure, which was being constructed by local BJP MLA Mangalprabhat Lodha, was illegal. “That was an illegal construction and we complained to the BMC leading to its demolition,” said a local Shiv Sena vibhag pramukh Pandurang Sakpal. He added that a new, bigger kabutarkhana was being constructed at Chowpatty Bandstand since Wednesday morning in place of the one that was in existence. “When it comes to Chowpatty, there is a high-power committee, CRZ rules, and no construction can be done there in an arbitrary manner,” said Sakpal, adding that Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai, Lok Sabha MP from South Mumbai Arvind Sawant, MLA Sunil Shinde and former BEST committee Arun Dudhwadkar were present during the demolition on Wednesday evening. When contacted, Lodha said he did not want to comment on this “sensitive issue” and added that he was unaware of the action by the BMC. The BMC assistant commissioner Vishwas Mote confirmed that the BMC had demolished the kabutarkhana and added that the issue had been brought to their notice by locals, and that the action had not been taken under the influence of any political party.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
You do not have to look far to see pigeons in Downtown La Crosse. A big price tag has been put on cleaning up the messes those pigeons are leaving behind.
Last Monday night, the La Crosse Board of Public Works approved $33,000 for pigeon waste cleanup.
“We have an issue with some pigeons roosting above the retail buildings in the Main Street Ramp,” said James Flottmeyer, Parking Utility Coordinator for the City of La Crosse.
According to Flottmeyer, the problem is more than 20 years in the making. The rooftops once separated from the ramp by a divider are now the place many pigeons call home.
“Over the years, they’ve pecked at the insulation to get in on top of the roofs,” Flottmeyer said.
The problem caught the attention of city officials this summer.
“When we had that big rain event at the end of July. Seven inches,” Flottmeyer said. “It caused some problems, because there’s enough of it up there when it got wet, then it gave off an odor.”
Aside from an odor, the pigeon waste poses health risks to people passing by.
“There are potential health issues with any concentration of animal droppings, including pigeon droppings,” said James Cherf, Owner of By James Gallery. “So, people should dispose of and handle those droppings in an appropriate fashion.”
The clean up is expected to begin at the end of the month. Crews will work to reseal the space between the parking ramp and the business roofing.
“The general public won’t notice the difference at all,” Flottmeyer said. “It’s happening in a confined space between the roof and the bottom of the ramp. So, the cleaning companies will come in, hose down the pigeon droppings that are up there to keep the dust down. Then, they’ll use brooms and shovels to haul it all out.”
With no clear timeline set, business owners hope the repairs are finished before winter hits.
“We are a small city in the middle of the wilderness, so we have lots and lots of food sources for pigeons outside of the city,” Cherf said. “When it starts getting to be more inclimate weather, a lot of these birds do come into our community to harbor.”
The cleanup is by no means a final solution, but it is yet another way the downtown community is coming together to address the pigeon population.
“It’s unrealistic to expect that we’ll ever be able to eradicate pigeons in our downtown area short of eradicating the species,” Cherf said.
This is the second year Downtown Mainstreet, Inc. is using the pigeon-feed contraceptive program to lower numbers of the local pigeon population.
Cherf reminds people that La Crosse does enforce a no feeding policy in city parks. Feeding the pigeons attracts them into the downtown area and encourages population growth. The no feeding policy also extends to squirrels and other wildlife.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A pensioner who fatally shot a pigeon as it perched in a neighbour’s tree has been fined £1,300.
Peter Lister used his air rifle to shoot the bird in its wing, Oxford Magistrates’ Court heard last week.
The RSPCA was called after a member of the public discovered the injured wood pigeon, which was taken to a vet and put down due to the extent of its injuries.
The 70-year-old Oxford artist pleaded not guilty, insisting he had nothing to do with the pigeon’s death.
The bird was wounded on January 30 in Southmoor Road, Jericho in a garden neighbouring Lister’s home.
Lister refused the RSPCA’s request to interview him and was described by the charity as ‘uncooperative’.
He denied shooting the bird, despite the pellet dislodged from the pigeon matching one of two air rifles owned by Lister and seized by the police.
At Friday’s court appearance Lister received a £500 fine and was told to pay £750 costs and a £50 victim surcharge.
Magistrates also issued a forfeiture order on the air rifle used to shoot the pigeon.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Starting on May 7, 2016, every weekend evening through midsummer saw the artist Duke Riley setting fly two thousand pigeons from atop an old battleship in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Fitted with tiny LED lights, they traced graceful illuminated meanders in the gathering night, before a bell rang them back to their coops. Fly by Night was one of Riley’s typically ambitious interventions, this one completely legal — a commission by Creative Time — as opposed to, say, the time in 2007 when he immersed a homemade spherical submarine of Revolutionary War–era design in New York Harbor and piloted it within yards of the Queen Mary before an armada of law enforcement fished him out. “The FBI didn’t think it was so funny,” he remembers of that episode. “They still have some kind of open file on me.” He was eventually able to get the sub back.
Riley, 45, is known for spectacular ventures with elements of poetry and provocation, usually staged in liminal zones where city meets water and sky: a chaotic naval joust between improvised vessels in a reflecting pool in Flushing Meadows Park; a temporary tavern full of drunk revelers built on swampland off the Belt Parkway. These enterprises tend to make news, as did, for instance, the time in 2012 when Riley set homing pigeons with Cuban cigars in tiny harnesses to fly from Havana back to their home in Key West.
Riley traces both his maritime and his avian interests back to his childhood, which he spent around Boston and on Cape Cod. He remembers hanging around a pigeon club in the Dorchester area: “It looked like a sports bar, but instead of pictures of athletes on the wall it was just pictures of pigeons,” he says. When he moved to Providence to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, he lived in a house with pigeons. He became a tattoo artist there as well, a practice he continues on occasion. But his formal subject at RISD was painting, and he later earned a master’s in sculpture from the Pratt Institute, setting up a studio art practice that is just as integral to his work.
Riley’s current exhibition at Magnan Metz is a two-parter: A large temporary space across the street from the gallery displays new work, made in the wake of Fly by Night; and in the gallery itself is a mini-retrospective of past pieces and project artifacts, including his original submarine. The show lends aesthetic grounding and context to the performance-style works, and tinges Riley’s rapscallion energy with introspection and melancholy. “The studio practice is extremely important to me functioning as a human and artist,” Riley says. Wearing his trademark fedora, he’s made it back to the gallery despite a hangover from the show’s opening party the night before. “Starting with a blank piece of paper and creating another world — even when the projects are happening, it’s an important part because I’m thinking.”
In the past year, those thoughts have turned brooding, related to the presidential campaign and outcome. “A lot of the work has to do with the political climate in the months following Fly by Night, when I was dismantling the show, then moved my birds back onto my roof in Red Hook,” he says. The connection was a feeling of threat. Late fall and early winter is when pigeons are most vulnerable to raptors, after migratory birds are gone and small animals have entered hibernation, Riley explains. “And the time when all these hawks were around was just after the election.” In more ways than one, predation was in the air.
Riley processed his feelings in a series of elegant paintings, presented in the manner of a naturalist’s almanac, of the raptors that threaten pigeons in New York City: goshawk, peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, and Cooper’s hawk. He made tile mosaics that depict raptors clutching pigeons as they swoop skyward. “Everyone in the pigeon community respects the course of nature, but even so, when you work with these birds you realize that they’re sentient beings that have feelings,” he says. “They establish relationships with other birds. They’re these beings that are terrified of the hawk. I was thinking of that stuff, and the feeling of trying to protect the people, and protect your loved ones.”
One of Riley’s signature large-scale drawings, which abound in references and riotous detail, presents the Navy Yard battleship with its upper strata rendered as a kind of Tower of Babel, featuring, amid much else, different varieties of pigeon coop architecture used around the world. The ship was a refuge, he says: self-contained and moored at the Navy Yard, itself a secluded space, all within New York City, which for all its faults remains an open-minded place. “It has always been a place of greater tolerance, as most port cities throughout history have been,” Riley says. In one area of the drawing, amid the mermaids and fish and assorted flotsam found in New York’s waterways, hammerhead sharks are attacking robed Ku Klux Klansmen, an allegory of resistance and revenge.
The exhibition’s centerpiece is a series of nearly one thousand portraits in profile of pigeons, each identified by name, breed, and their flock or owner from among the city’s die-hard subculture of pigeon fliers. The portraits are made of fabric embroidered via a computerized process, then stretched over canvas and hand-painted, so they are precise likenesses of members of Riley’s flying armada. (An album of photographs of all two thousand pigeons, yearbook-style, is on hand for those wishing to verify.) A few of the pigeons were veterans of Riley’s 2012 Key West project. Most were borrowed from other fliers and returned afterward. Riley retains around two hundred birds near Red Hook. He flies them in the late afternoon, for a work break with his assistants. “We call it pigeon o’clock,” he says.
Riley titled this show Now Those Days Are Gone, and while the reference is kept vague, the elegiac feeling is impossible to miss. It can apply to the national climate, and just as well, Riley hints, to a mid-career taking of stock. “I wouldn’t call it activism, but most of the work I’ve done has a sense of optimism about what is possible, of empowerment,” he says. “After [Fly by Night] I needed time to think about how I was looking at things, and whether some of the methods I’ve used in the past even make sense.”
It can apply, as well, to New York City and the piers, marshes, and estuaries that Riley has explored for years, semi-wilderness zones that invigorate a city’s culture, not just its ecology. In 2012, Riley’s stained-glass pieces commissioned by the MTA went up at a Rockaway subway station just before the Sandy storm; one panel depicted bungalows swept out to sea. Since then, waterfront development continues unabated around the city, squeezing out the remaining cruising sites, artist’s squats, and assorted ungoverned areas. For Riley, this is a loss. “I think it’s intrinsic human instinct that people are drawn to the sorts of spaces where water meets land, these abandoned urban areas where you can operate outside the constraints of society,” he says. “A city needs to breathe.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A mystery Brummie spent £60 sending an injured PIGEON from Aston to a wildlife sanctuary in Nuneaton – by taxi.
Shocked sanctuary owner Geoff Grewcock said the centre received a call to say that an injured animal would be arriving in a cab from the city – a distance of 25 miles.
The kind hearted woman had even sent a donation to the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary – as well as paying £60 for the pigeon’s journey.
Stunned Geoff said “it goes to show what loving, caring people there are out there”.
“It was incredible,” added Geoff, who has run the sanctuary for 16 years.
“The woman had sent the pigeon in the back of a taxi, on its own, from Aston to us here, and even sent a donation for us as well, I could not believe it.”
He explained that the animal lover had found the injured pigeon and taken it along to the PDSA in Aston.
“They said that they would have to put it down but she said ‘No, you are not’,” he explained.
“That’s when she phoned us here. She told us that she would be sending it in a taxi, and she did. It was marvellous, it just goes to show the lengths that some people will go to care for animals, it is incredibly kind.”
He has admitted that he has seen some sights during his time at the animal haven, but none like the arrival of the injured bird at the weekend.
“It was strange knowing a taxi was coming with a pigeon in the back but it goes to show what loving, caring people there are out there,” Geoff added.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
The Division of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Office of Animal Health & Industry, conducted a livestock and poultry survey for producers of cattle, swine, goats, poultry, ducks, pigeons, turkeys, rabbits and deer on Saipan.
CNMI state veterinarian Dr. Ignacio Dela Cruz noted that two survey teams were created to conduct the survey in the event of any disaster affecting the CNMI where a meaningful and effective disaster response and coordination could be mustered and achieved.
“The survey conducted showed the following number of animals on Saipan: 377 heads of cattle, 999 swine, 170 goats, 4,840 chickens, 196 ducks, 212 pigeons, 4 turkeys, 2 rabbits, 16 deer. With this information, a realistic disaster planning, preparedness and response could be worked out. Supplies, materials, animal feeds and pharmaceutical needs for poultry, livestock and other farm animals could easily be made available because the numbers are there and are current to work with,” he said.
Dr. Dela Cruz added that there are a total of 49 producers, ranchers and farmers in which 22 represented cattle raisers and 36 swine producers, 19 raising goats, 18 raising ducks, 38 raising poultry, 9 raising pigeons, 2 raising turkeys, 2 raising deer and 1 raising rabbits with only one producer, Saipan Egg & Poultry, operating a commercial egg laying operation with about 2,000 layers.
“Of the 22 cattle producers, 7 were leasing government land to raise their animals which varied from 1 to 25 hectares with a total of about 62 hectares of government land being leased to raise cattle. The above numbers are combined numbers of all the animals in each category, regardless of sex or age. Obviously, this does not present a clear picture of Saipan’s farm animal populations. The numbers also do not represent the total animal population within each category and more detailed classification and wider coverage must be planned and worked out,” he said.
Dr. Dela Cruz added that in the case of an outbreak such as an incursion of FMD or foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, exotic Newcastle disease or classical swine fever or hog cholera, reliable data on farm animals is needed.
“A decision to vaccinate, depopulate or to treat the target animals would be more efficient because we would know how much vaccine or medicine would be required, or in the event of depopulation or an eradication effort, the decision whether to incinerate, bury, landfill or do composting would be easier to reach or make because they would know how much mass or animal carcasses they would be dealing or working with,” he said.
Acting Secretary for Lands and Natural Resources Augustin Kaipat expressed that the next survey will be made to separate the animals by sex and age groups.
“The survey was started and completed in September. The work was not all-inclusive of the available farm animals on Saipan and a more comprehensive survey will be undertaken hopefully in the next year. We thank Dr. Dela Cruz for initiating this survey and our team members Robert Magofna, Joe Takai, Manny Quitano and Ben Cabrera,” Kaipat said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
