The Pigeon Poop Station Saga

The Pigeon Poop Station Saga

The Pigeon Poop Station Saga: Bird Pooping On Lawmaker’s Head Seems To Catch Local Leaders’ Attention

HICAGO (CBS) — The CBS 2 Morning Insiders got the scoop on the poop heard ’round the world.

Our video showed a pigeon relieving itself on an Illinois lawmaker as he talked about a problem at the Irving Park Blue Line station. It got international attention, but more importantly, it seems to have caught the eye of leaders locally.

CBS 2’s Lauren Victory met back up with Illinois state Rep. Jaime Andrade (D-Chicago) for this latest report. This time, they shot their interview strategically, given that a pigeon pooped on Andrade’s head as they spoke last time.

RELATED: State Rep. Searches For Funds To Clean Up Irving Park ‘Pigeon Poop Station,’ Gets Pooped On During Interview | ‘It Stinks To High Heaven’: No Solution In Sight For Pigeon Poop Problem At Irving Park Blue Line Stop

Victory: “Did you ever think that a pigeon would get you name recognition?”

Andrade: “Not that much. Not at this level.”

At the Kennedy Expressway underpass at Irving Park Road, where the entrance to the Blue Line station is located, the pigeons’ waste, feathers, and filth create a gross hopscotch game for commuters.

Last time, of course, Andrade couldn’t dodge said pigeons. The pigeon pooping video clip made headlines across the city, the country, and even the ocean.

“Farthest place I’ve heard so far is Spain,” Andrade said.

His feces fame is not for naught. Andrade said he spotted men in yellow vests hard at work after our most recent story aired.

“They said they were out here taking measurements from one of the agencies,” Andrade said. “I’ve been trying to get a real cost, price for over a year. You do the story and they’re out here, measurements just within a few days?”

The Chicago Transit Authority said it sent Landmark Pest Management crews to remove garbage from pigeon netting. As to whether they are working on something long-term, the CTA refused to say.

So Victory decided to learn more about Landmark. Its parent company, ABC Humane Wildlife Control and Prevention, is hired by several departments in Chicago and at the state level.

Landmark President Rebecca Fyffe told Victory that a city contract prevents her from speaking specifically about plans for the Irving Park station. But she pointed CBS 2 to her company’s pigeon abatement work at the Lawrence Red Line station in 2010.

Today, that area is fairly clean by city standards.

CBS 2 is told that Ald. James Cappleman (46th) pushed for the project after several pigeon-related complaints. Cappleman’s spokesman said bird poop was also causing CTA equipment to degrade, so the CTA picked up the bill – to the tune of $150,000. When asked if that figure scared him, Andrade said it did not.

“No, no, I hope it’s that,” he said. But Andrade’s problem is that Irving Park comes with jurisdiction issues. The Blue Line station is CTA property, but other parts of the overpass belong to the Illinois Department of Transportation. “Our constituents don’t care. All they want is the situation solved,” Andrade said. “This story has brought attention all the way to the top, so that I know.”

We’ll wait, and so will the pigeons – who are so comfortable along the overpass that even a train won’t make them flinch.

If you have something you want the Morning Insiders to check out in your neighborhood, email cbschicagotips@cbs.com.

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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Feeding pigeons in Vegas can now net you a $1000 fine and six months behind bars

Feeding pigeons in Vegas can now net you a $1000 fine and six months behind bars

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A unanimous vote has officially made it illegal to feed the pigeons in public in the City of Las Vegas.

Ward 1 councilwoman Lois Tarkanian sponsored the bill. She said the city received numerous complaints about pigeon problems, and it came down to a health issue. Their droppings, she says, can be toxic and can even carry diseases.

News 3 spoke with a pest control expert who explained that when people feed pigeons, more pigeons will show up and expect food at that location. they flock there, reproduce, and thus create more waste.

Meanwhile, the expert says, that food source disappears, but the pigeons don’t necessarily leave. As a result, the street feeders have created a problem for the pigeons.

This may sound like a silly crime — but there are similar laws in place in Henderson and in Clark County.

It does bring up the question — how does the city plan on enforcing it?

Well, if you’re caught feeding them on the streets, there is a chance you’d be reported to the city.

Violators of the new pigeon law could face fines up to $1,000 and even up to six months behind bars.

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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Fifteen-year-old Aurora Milbrandt impressed Saskatoon Mayor

Fifteen-year-old Aurora Milbrandt impressed Saskatoon Mayor

Fifteen-year-old Aurora Milbrandt impressed Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark with a presentation at city hall on how to deal with pesky pigeons in a humane way.

Milbrandt appeared at Monday’s meeting of city council’s environment, utilities and community services committee to address a request to ban the use of neurotoxins to kill nuisance pigeons.

“Wow,” Clark said after Milbrandt’s presentation. “For a Grade 10 student, that was a very well presented set of arguments and solutions.”

Milbrandt targeted the product Avitrol, saying contrary to what some believe the chemical agent can result in a “very painful death” for pigeons and other small animals that consume it.

She suggested the city consider euthanizing pigeons as a last resort and focus on other measures — educating the public not to feed pigeons, using a birth control product to make female pigeons barren and employing a predator like a hawk or falcon.

The committee heard that the City of Saskatoon no longer uses Avitrol. Clark asked whether any city has banned its use throughout the community, including by private citizens and businesses.

City lawyer Blair Bleakney told the committee the city could enact a bylaw to govern chemical use on private property, but advised against a ban on a specific product.

The committee voted unanimously to direct the administration to study a pest management strategy for the city.

The city contracts out pest management, including pigeon control, to private contractors and Avitrol has been used in the past, a city report says.

The city stopped using Avitrol after Jan Shaddick, executive director of Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation, appeared before the same committee in May to request the city discontinue the product’s use, the report adds.

The city hired a contractor this year to euthanize about 1,500 pigeons that had made their home inside cavities in the piers of the Senator Sidney L. Buckwold Bridge, the report notes. In September, the city said 2,300 pigeons were euthanized.

Angela Gardiner, the city’s general manager of utilities and environment, said there is an understanding between city hall and the contractor that animals will be euthanized according to Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) standards.

“The CVMA holds that when animals are euthanized, death must be quick using a method that causes the least possible pain and distress,” Gardiner wrote in an email.

She did not know the exact method of euthanasia used for the Buckwold Bridge pigeons. Grating was installed during rehabilitation work on the bridge to ensure pigeons do not return to the cavities.

The company working on the bridge removed about 635 tonnes of pigeon waste from the cavities.

ptank@postmedia.com

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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The City of Saskatoon says it has stopped poisoning pigeons

The City of Saskatoon says it has stopped poisoning pigeons

The Standing Policy Committee on Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services on Monday reviewed a report prepared in response to a request by Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation.

The centre asked the city to stop using the neurotoxin, saying it’s an inhumane way to control pests.

Around 2,300 pigeons put down, 635,000 kg of feces cleaned from Saskatoon bridge

According to a description on Avitrol’s website, the product works by causing “behaviours similar to an epileptic seizure.”close up of a wild pigeon

“This may include flying erratically, vocalizing, trembling, dilation of the pupils and other symptoms,” the description says.

Witnessing these behaviours can encourage unaffected birds to leave a location.

“Flocks can be frightened away from sites little or no mortality.”

According to the report, Avitrol is no longer used in other cities including Halifax, San Francisco and New York.

The committee heard how in the past the city used Avitrol to remove pests, but currently there are no sites where the city or its contractors are using the poison.

However the city does not have anything in writing that bans private use of Avitrol.

City hall to pursue pest management strategy for Saskatoon

Concern is raised over the city’s use of neurotoxins to control pigeon populations

PHIL TANK, SASKATOON STARPHOENIX

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Bird Gone, Pigeon Gone, Pigeon problems, pigeon spikes, 1-877-4NO-BIRD, 4-S Gel, Bird Control, Pigeon Control, bird repellent, Bird Spikes, sonic bird repellent, stainless steel bird spikes, bird spikes Vancouver, Ultra Sonic Bird Control, Bird Netting, Plastic Bird Spikes, Canada bird spike deterrents, Pigeon Pests, B Gone Pigeon, Pigeon Patrol, pest controller, pest control operator, pest control technician, Pigeon Control Products, humane pigeon spikes, pigeon deterrents, pigeon traps, Pigeon repellents, Sound & Laser Deterrents, wildlife control, raccoon, skunk, squirrel deterrent, De-Fence Spikes, Dragons Den.

Canadian woman battling crippling disease caused by pigeon poop

Canadian woman battling crippling disease caused by pigeon poop

people covered in bird droppings

Canadian woman battling crippling disease caused by pigeon poop

PETER POWER – THE GLOBE AND MAIL

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.

In early January, 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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Bird Gone, Pigeon Gone, Pigeon problems, pigeon spikes, 1-877-4NO-BIRD, 4-S Gel, Bird Control, Pigeon Control, bird repellent, Bird Spikes, sonic bird repellent, stainless steel bird spikes, bird spikes Vancouver, Ultra Sonic Bird Control, Bird Netting, Plastic Bird Spikes, Canada bird spike deterrents, Pigeon Pests, B Gone Pigeon, Pigeon Patrol, pest controller, pest control operator, pest control technician, Pigeon Control Products, humane pigeon spikes, pigeon deterrents, pigeon traps, Pigeon repellents, Sound & Laser Deterrents, wildlife control, raccoon, skunk, squirrel deterrent, De-Fence Spikes, Dragons Den.

Open-Air Pigeon Nest Closes Popular Mission Taqueria

Open-Air Pigeon Nest Closes Popular Mission Taqueria

Brazen Pigeons feed off a table eating leftovers

Brazen Pigeons feeding directly from the table.

Open-Air Pigeon Nest Closes Popular Mission Taqueria

by Chris Roberts | September 13, 2011

Pigeons are more than rats with wings. Birds of the family columbidae are also reasons not to eat at Taqueria Vallarta on 24th Street — or, more precisely, why nobody has eaten at Taqueria Vallarta since Sept. 8th, and why nobody may eat there until a Department of Public Health hearing tomorrow.

It appears a pair of diners were chowing down on their favorite Mission District Mexican food selections — the street-style tacos served until after 3 a.m. are particularly bomb, we hear — when they noticed something was afoot. Or rather, a-wing: there was a pigeon nest in the restaurant’s rafters, and pigeons flying in and out of the eatery via a hole in the roof, according to a complaint on file with DPH.

“There were pigeons flying in and out of the restaurant,” the unnamed resident said, according to the complaint. “The peigons [sic] were leaving peigon [sic] waste visibly around the restaurant.” (You can read the entire complaint here.)

That was on Sept. 6. On Sept. 8, a DPH inspector visited for a reinspection and ordered the restaurant immediately closed after finding six bags of trash in a storage closet and what was delicately described as a “cockroach infestation.” (You can read the inspector’s entire report here.)

This isn’t the first time Vallarta has had to close due to an excess in, shall we say, live animal culture: the eatery also had to close in 2006 thanks to a roach population.

 

All this will soon be taken care of, according to restaurant owner Juan Rosas Lopez, reached via telephone at the eatery on Tuesday.

“We’re closed to do renovations to the restuarant,” said Lopez, who, God bless him, talked to us after we exhausted our Spanish with repeated “periodico, noticias, noticias,” to one of his employees. “We’re fixing the walls, the bars, the counters,” Lopez said. “We’re doing something nice.”

Lopez says he’ll be able to reopen in a couple of days, pending results on the hearing.
Whatever problems he’s had doesn’t appear to have cut into his bottom line much — another Vallarta location recently opened on 16th Streetand the taqueria’s Yelp rating is a four out of five stars.

But the pigeons? That’s a new one. “‘Pigeon problems’ abound in this city and all cities throughout the US and the world,” observed DPH spokeswoman Eileen Shields.

“What doesn’t abound are pigeons taking up residence inside restaurants. Very unusual occurrence, even for San Francisco.”

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.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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