by Pigeon Patrol | Nov 5, 2014 | Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeons in the News
In the span of a few weeks, Erica Richards has been transformed from a vibrant 23-year-old woman who loved nature to a person battling for her life.
The Fredericton woman contracted a potentially fatal condition called cryptococcal meningitis, a fungal disease carried in the feces of pigeons.
The debilitating illness attacks the spine and brain, causing severe swelling. It left her confined to a hospital bed in a state of delirium for weeks.
But the most devastating side effect is that Ms. Richards is now blind.
“Be aware of this disease. It could kill a child in a heartbeat,” Ms. Richards said in an interview from her hospital bed.
“It could kill a senior in a heartbeat without you even having to worry about the symptoms. It comes on that fast. If you don’t realize the symptoms, it could kill you, too.”
Her emotional warning comes on the heels of city council’s approval earlier this month of a recommendation that it toughen its animal control bylaw to allow for fines for feeding pigeons. Once the amendment is drafted and declared law, it will give the city’s bylaw enforcement officers the power to ticket and fine offenders.
Ms. Richards said she decided to go public about her illness after learning about a recent newspaper story about a problem with pigeon poop in the city.
“Please don’t feed the pigeons,” she said. “Try to shoo them away if you see them. … It (the disease) is horrible. The pain that you get from this disease is crippling.
“The after-effects are with you for life and you just can’t stop thinking about it. I just want other people to know and try to stay away from pigeons.”
Oddly enough, Ms. Richards said she has no recollection of ever being anywhere near pigeons.
“I am still wondering to this day where I got it,” she said. “I could have stepped in it and brought it into the home. I just don’t know.”
Ms. Richards said the symptoms started with a migraine headache that wouldn’t go away. She was admitted to hospital on Feb. 10 after many days of intense head pain. Shortly after, she went into a coma-like state.
“When I woke up I thought I had a mask over my eyes, but I was wrong. I was blind. I was recently told that I will be blind for the rest of my life. This is a tough thing for a 23-year-old to go through. … My world crumbled around me.”
Ms. Richards said the odds of surviving the disease are 50-50.
“However, I managed to make it through,” she said, battling tears. “I don’t know how but I am still here, and I am glad because I get to warn everyone else of this.”
Cristin Muecke, the Health Department’s regional medical officer, confirmed the disease is often associated with pigeon droppings. She said the illness can’t be spread person to person and is more common with someone who has immune problems.
Ms. Richards, however, said she has never had a problem with her immune system and that’s what’s so puzzling about contracting the affliction.
“I do not want anyone else to suffer this agonizing disease and I ask anyone who is feeding pigeons to stop,” she said. “It’s not just a matter of keeping your neighbourhood clean … it’s a matter of keeping people healthy.”
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Nov 4, 2014 | Pigeons in the News
Ten thousand pigeons, which were being dramatically released as part of a public holiday celebration in China, were given anal examinations following concerns from Chinese security officials that the birds could be used as part of a terrorist attack.
The authorities also checked the feathers and legs of the birds, before they were used in today’s National Day event in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
It annually marks the 1949 founding of the People’s Republic China and this year celebrated the nation’s 65th anniversary. It is held each year on 1 October.
China’s state-run newspaper, People’s Daily, yesterday posted an image and accompanying caption that read: “10,000 pigeons go through anal security check for suspicious objects on Tuesday, ready to be released on National Day on October 1.”
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Nov 4, 2014 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
The Bank of Scotland has been cause for eyesore due to it’s pigeon infestation
The Bank of Scotland in Burghead is only open for two hours each week and local people have complained for some time about the ‘eyesore’ with its boarded windows and resident pigeon population.
Janet Margaret Glendinning, who works for a contract cleaning company, has been voluntarily taking on the additional task of cleaning up around the building.
However, she has revealed via a social media post that Bank of Scotland staff advised her to stop doing so.
Mrs Glendinning said that she now hopes the building’s owners will take action on what she believes is a “definite health risk”.
She said: “I have regrettably decided to stop cleaning the pavement outside the Bank of Scotland, Burghead Branch on the advice of the bank staff and of Mitie, the contract cleaning company we work for.
“Although it was not part of the job description, we have done it for many years but things got worse and it has become a definite health risk.
“We are hoping that the owners will step up to the crease and get professionals in.
“We do hope the people in Burghead will understand our situation and be patient should the situation worsen in the near future.”
Currently the bank only use the building on Tuesday mornings from 9.30am until 11.30am – nobody was available to discuss the building’s condition last night.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 31, 2014 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News
– Pigeons can inbreed exactly up to 21 times before the effects become detrimental
– Pigeons can navigate via the earth’s magnetic fields
– Pigeons always lay at least 2 eggs with each one being a male and a female
– Pigeons have been known to live over 30 years
– Pigeons are also known as the ‘Rats of the Sky’
Awful!
– Pigeons are an invasive species, shrinking the population of smaller birds when theirs increases
– Diseases are transferable from pigeon to humans– such include tuberculosis, ornithosis, and salmonellosis
– Bird Fancier’s Lung, also called Pigeon-Breeder’s lung is a condition caused by bird poop. It causes the lungs to become inflamed with a granuloma formation
– A full grown pigeon has 10,000 feathers
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 31, 2014 | Pigeons in the News
Nikola Tesla is best known as the inventor of alternative current and the first to prove wireless communication was possible.
Tesla never had a lot of money, but he sure had a lot of drive. He did what he wanted, whether that was wild experiences with electricity or being scared of round things.
He also loved pigeons.
He always opened his hotel room’s windows to let them in, and he fed them. He set up small beds in his room for them, and would draw the attention of so many that they often threw him out after pigeon excrements had defaced the outside walls around his room. When he lived in New York, he’d walked to Central Park every day to feed the pigeons for hours. The money problems didn’t matter. Nikola Tesla fed the pigeons, sometimes ordering special seeds for them.
Tesla had a life-long love for pigeons
Then came the one.
His loved for pigeons focused upon a single creature. It was no longer a ‘pigeons deserve to be fed and loved’. It was soul-crushing, all-encompassing love.
“Yes, I loved that pigeon, I loved her as a man loves a woman, and she loved me.”
He had a strong, unbreakable link with that pigeon and was convinced they communicated. One day she flew in his hotel room, and he knew. She was going to die.
“When that pigeon died, something went out of my life. Up to that time I knew a certainty that I would complete my work, no matter how ambitious my program, but when that something went out of my life, I knew my life’s work was finished.”
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 31, 2014 | Pigeons in the News
Feathered diners at a McDonald’s restaurant in Wellington have driven a customer to lay complaints with the city council.
Wellington man Vinod Mistry is a fan of the fast-food franchise, but does not want to share his table and fries with a pigeon.
The Lambton Quay McDonald’s was a haven for hungry pigeons and the Wellington City Council needed to force the fast-food giant to keep them out of the indoor dining area, Mistry said. The birds make their way to the second floor via an internal escalator.
However, the council said it was up to the company to deal with the pigeons and it has repeatedly asked for the issue to be dealt with for six years.
McDonald’s said it was working with the council to fix the problem.
Mistry said he made two separate complaints last week about the pigeons in the restaurant.
The council appeared to swoop on a small business if there was a squeak of a mouse, rat or spider in their premises, he said.
But it appeared that, when it came to the feathered vermin, the council was turning a blind eye.
“Pigeons are just as much of a health risk as other animals. You never know when one flying around the restaurant or sitting on table could put droppings in your food.”
Council’s public health operations team leader Andrew Taylor confirmed there was a health risk, but only if diners inadvertently ate pigeon poo with their meal.
“Bird poo can contain bacteria such as salmonella, so it is not safe. But the person would have to ingest some of the bacteria through direct contamination or hand contact,” Taylor said.
The council had been trying to get McDonald’s to keep pigeons out of the premises since 2008, he said. “Every time we’ve spoken to them about the pigeon issue, we have been told by management that they will address the issue.”
The restaurant had tried different methods, such as a distress-call speaker at the entrance and lowering the entry-space height to the food premises, but none had proven to be effective, Taylor said.
Council staff would be contacting McDonald’s this week to discuss how they proposed to rectify the matter so “these ongoing complaints cease”.
McDonald’s spokesman Kim Bartlett said pigeons were a widespread issue in the Wellington CBD and the Lambton Quay McDonald’s had taken a number of measures to address the problem, including “working with an external company on effectively managing the presence of the birds”.
The council said the company needed to get its premises to meet the food-hygiene regulations. ”
The fact of the matter is, their place is affected and they need to do something about it,” Taylor 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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
