by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 30, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
It’s bad enough when a pigeon treats your Toyota like a toilet. It’s worse when you have to run a gauntlet of dead birds and poop while dashing for your morning train. Who’s going to clean up this mess at Metropark station?
Commuter Joe Yospe emailed us about a problem he encounters on his commute from Iselin in the walkway between the third floor parking deck and the station.
“The walkway is full of pigeon excrement, feathers, other unknown filthy objects and for a two-week period, two dead pigeons (were) just sitting in the walkway,” he said. “No one cleans up that area, as well as the area on the platform itself which is full of bird excrement.”
Q: Whose job is it to clean up the pigeon poop and remove the dead birds and what’s being done?
A: NJ Transit hires contractors to run some of it’s parking facilities and that is the case in Metropark, said Jennifer M. Nelson, an NJ Transit spokeswoman.
“The parking deck is run for NJ Transit by Nexus. We have responsibility for the platform and it was just power washed this past Friday,” she said. “We did a walk through with a pest (bird) control representative, with Nexus, and with our staff to discuss how to best address the ongoing bird-related issues at the station and parking deck.”
NJ Transit expects to have a proposal from the pest control representatives in the next few weeks to address the issue around the station and parking deck, she said.
“(We) will implement an agreed upon course of action as soon as possible,” Nelson said.
Let us know how the battle of the birds shakes out, Joe.
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 | Mar 29, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes
Pigeon ‘stools’ on the Craigavon Bridge are imperilling pedallers and pedestrians alike with one Waterside Councillor calling for netting to be erected to help address the problem.
Waterside SDLP Councillor Martin Reilly said the problem of ‘unpleasant and unsafe’ pigeon deposits, which are causing distress to cyclists and pedestrians in the area, needs to be tackled immediately.
“I have been contacted by people who use the cycle path along the lower deck of the Craigavon Bridge who are annoyed at the gathering of pigeon mess which makes cycling and walking in this area unpleasant and unsafe,” he said.
He explained that the section of the crossing is not wide enough for Council vehicles to access.
“Unfortunately this part of the bridge is too narrow for Council cleansing vehicles – and in the past Council worked with Transport NI and Sustrans to close this stretch to carry out the necessary cleaning works. While this cleaning work is welcome the effects do not last long and a more permanent solution is required,” he added.
Whilst bird droppings are found throughout the city a pigeon hang-out close to the steps near the Waterside end of the bridge is where the problem is most pronounced. Layers of pigeon droppings millimetres thick have been allowed to accumulate and when slick with rain it poses a serious hazard for walkers and cyclists.
The ordure is creating serious disorder.
Mr Reilly said: “Transport NI previously suggested installing netting in this area to prevent pigeons from roosting. I am therefore calling on these statutory agencies to work together to find an adequate solution which would encourage further use of this key walkway and cycle route.”
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 | Mar 28, 2016 | Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
A pensioner has been left with a £1,000 court bill for feeding the birds in her back garden.
Brenda Hawkins, 74, was hauled to court after neighbours complained about flocks of pigeons, jackdaws and seagulls descending on her home daily – likening it to a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
After being fined £1,000 for ‘nuisance’, she was told the penalty would be as much as £2,500 next time if she continued putting out food – and a refusal to pay could result in a jail sentence.
Brenda Hawkins, (pictured) 74, was hauled to court after neighbours complained about flocks of pigeons, jackdaws and seagulls descending on her home daily
Ms Hawkins was fined £1,000 for ‘nuisance’ and she was told the penalty would be as much as £2,500 next time if she continued putting out food. A refusal to pay could result in a jail sentence
Locals in the seaside town of Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales, said up to 100 birds arrived in Mrs Hawkins’s garden every day, causing an intolerable mess and racket.
But yesterday, the retired personal assistant complained that Conwy council had punished her in a ‘draconian’ manner. Mrs Hawkins, who has lived in her semi-detached bungalow for more than 25 years, said: ‘I think it’s disgusting. The council has gone over the top to make an example of me.
‘My difficulty is that when feeding small birds, it’s inevitable that larger birds such as seagulls join in. I have no control over which birds turn up.’ She added: ‘I enjoy nature but now that’s been taken away from me. It’s a sad day for bird-loving people.’
Diane and Harold Fredman (pictured) live next door and their garden backs onto Brenda Hawkins. They said they see the birds all the time
Magistrates in Llandudno were told how around 80 to 100 pigeons, jackdaws and seagulls descended on Mrs Hawkins’s lawn and garden wall to eat seeds and other food she put out each morning
Neighbours said their cars, along with clothes on their washing lines, were regularly spattered with droppings
Magistrates in Llandudno were told how around 80 to 100 pigeons, jackdaws and seagulls descended on Mrs Hawkins’s lawn and garden wall to eat seeds and other food she put out each morning.
Neighbours said their cars, along with clothes on their washing lines, were regularly spattered with droppings. They claimed they felt threatened by the birds, which sometimes ‘dive-bombed’ residents in the otherwise quiet street.
The council first received complaints in May 2014, and Mrs Hawkins was offered advice on reducing the number of larger birds. But she refused to change her behaviour, and in June she was issued with a Community Protection Notice – similar to an anti-social behaviour order. She denied failing to comply with the notice, but magistrates found her guilty after hearing evidence from neighbours including Diane and Harold Fredman, whose garden backs onto Mrs Hawkins’s.
Mrs Fredman, 69, said: ‘The noise from the flapping of wings and the seagulls was horrendous. Putting that amount of food out with no consideration for neighbours is ridiculous.’
Her daughter Alex Harvey, 35, added: ‘It’s like a scene from the Hitchcock horror film The Birds when huge flocks swoop into the garden.’
But Mrs Hawkins’s husband Derek, 78, said there had been no complaints until the Fredmans moved in, describing the couple as having a ‘vendetta’.
Mrs Hawkins was fined £200, also paying costs of £409, a criminal court charge of £520 and a surcharge of £20, leaving her with a £1,149 bill.
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 | Mar 25, 2016 | Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, UltraSonic Bird Control
25India and her neighbours ought to remember that from superstition to intolerance is often a short step
We’re in a sort of skiff under a small bridge over the river Ravi in Lahore. Heavy traffic, incessant honking, and all the expected city noises fill the air. The river itself is sluggish, and, like the Yamuna in Delhi, more a drain than a river. As our little boat makes its way from one shore to another, a strange packet floats down from the bridge into the river. I think resignedly how alike we are across borders: stand anywhere, and chuck anything overboard without a thought about the consequences.
But I’m wrong — in one thing at least. This is not rubbish as I soon discover: a bunch of kites parked on a small mud island quickly wing it across and pick at the packet. Later, standing on the bridge, the story unravels. Dotted here and there along both sides of the bridge are men and women holding plastic bags. They’re poor, some are disabled and what they have in their hands is meat — the offal and leftover bits of meat that humans don’t eat, which they purchase from butchers for cheap.
Here, on the bridge, the meat-sellers stand and offer this to anyone who wants to leverage some good karma by feeding the birds. So, the rich and the middle-class stop by, and they or their drivers step out and buy, and then cursorily chuck it over the side. Good deed done, they can get on with life. Meanwhile, as an environmental activist tells me, the birds suffer, they grow fatter and fatter, and sometimes this kills them and their numbers fall.
I’m struck by how alike we are — no matter that we are across the border. And no matter that there may be differences in religion. Here, in Delhi, every day when I drive to work, I see a similar sight.
Turning off the main road to the lane that leads to my office, I traverse a small traffic island on my right. Here, every morning, a young man arrives bearing two large sacks of grain and chana, and a number of light metal plates. He sets himself up with four or five plates and, soon enough, cars stop, oblivious to the vehicles of office-going people they are blocking. They buy a plate and then chuck its contents right there. Then, there’s a great flapping of wings as hundreds of pigeons descend onto the food and begin to eat it up. Meanwhile the grain-throwers get on with life, secure in the knowledge that they have earned their brownie points for this life and the next.
The scattering of grain on the ground goes on all day. By evening, the pigeons are stuffed and disinterested, the young entrepreneur (what else can you call him?) is still there, and sometimes a desultory customer will show up and he’ll get some more business. One day I watched a young girl arrive in a large limousine. While her rich parent sat in car, the girl stepped out, ayah in tow. Instructions relayed from parent to driver to ayah to the supremely bored girl, who followed those nonetheless. Perhaps she had an exam to clear or an engagement in the offing.
Elsewhere there may be people feeding monkeys, or cows, or crows. It’s a strange thing: we destroy their habitat, and then feed them silly to gain good karma.
I’m struck by many things about this phenomenon: there’s the spirit of entrepreneurship. For the poor, whether it’s in Lahore or Delhi or elsewhere, it’s a way to trade on people’s blind faith and make a rupee or two out of it. You have to admire that.
But then, there’s also this question that bothers me every day: how have we become so deeply superstitious? Where does that come from? And why are we unable — or unwilling — to see that the pigeons and kites and other sundry animals and birds are being overfed?
There are other concerns too: it’s easy for me to laugh at the pigeon-feeders but this isn’t just funny. It’s precisely this kind of superstition and blind belief that kills the Dabholkars, Pansares and Kalburgis of this world. From superstition to intolerance is often a short step: you can convince yourself that, say, eating beef will bring you bad karma — even if it’s your neighbour eating it — and you then take law into your own hands and kill them. Or you can convince yourself that a woman is actually a witch and you destroy her life (and sometimes take over her property too).
Increasingly, in India today — and who knows, perhaps across the border too — using superstition and blind belief, or exploiting the human need for faith, have become weapons in the hands of cynical politicians and corporates.
If a builder can conduct human sacrifices to appease the evil spirits in a building where people will live and love and give birth and die, there has to be something seriously wrong with us.
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 | Mar 23, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes
A backyard cat breeder found guilty of animal cruelty charges has pleaded with an Adelaide magistrate not to allow the RSPCA to remove her remaining cats.
Glynne Sutcliffe, 75, was found guilty of several charges of mistreating an animal after more than 100 cats were seized from her Chandlers Hill property in 2011.
The Adelaide Magistrates Court has heard the cats were kept in appalling conditions and many had untreated medical problems including the feline AIDS virus.
RSPCA prosecutor Ronan O’Brien asked the court to impose a hefty fine and order her to pay close to $17,000 in legal costs, vet bills and boarding fees.
He also wants her banned from owning any animal.
“The conditions that the cats were living in [were] quite simply appalling,” Mr O’Brien said.
Please don’t let [my cats] go to the slaughter house.
Glynne Sutcliffe
“The defendant has not shown any remorse for the conditions at the property. She remains indifferent to the plight of the cats.
“The cats in the matter weren’t pets, they weren’t part of a rescue operation where it all got too much.
“The sole purpose of these cats were to make the defendant money — $400 a piece.”
Mr O’Brien said he would expect that a person making money from the sale of cats would look after that investment by providing adequate living conditions for them.
“She is purposefully breeding these animals to make money and yet the animals that are providing that income aren’t receiving even the most basic living conditions. This is a cat farm.”
Sutcliffe told the court she still owned about 20 cats, and pleaded with Magistrate Paul Bennett to allow her to keep them.
She said if she was forced to give up the cats, she should be allowed to sell them, not the RSPCA.
“There’s a lot of smearing, a lot of assumptions, a lot of hypocrisy,” Sutcliffe said.
“I wasn’t in it for the money. I was in it because I quite like kittens and giving them to people.
“The RSPCA has entirely ruined my life without malice.
“The notion that I was making money off cats … the RSPCA makes money any which way off animals.
“They are ruthless destroyers, they kill without mercy.
“Please don’t let [my cats] go to the slaughter house.”
She has promised to appeal against her conviction in the Supreme Court before being sentenced next month.
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 | Mar 20, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
Traveling can be an incredibly freeing experience, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re free to do whatever you want. Tourists often find themselves in hot water with locals or law enforcement for being ignorant of laws or cultural norms.
At best, this can be embarrassing. At worst, illegal. Switching into relaxation mode is essential for most vacations, but don’t let it make you blind to some crucial information about your destination. Try making a must-not-do list in addition to your to-do list. In some places, chewing gum is illegal. In others, throwing out your metro ticket breaks the law. Here are a few weird laws to watch out for.
Feeding the pigeons in Venice
Throwing birdseed in Venice’s Piazza San Marco may seem like an innocent pastime, but Venice has banned feeding the city’s massive pigeon population. Some people do still feed the birds, but the practice is punishable by a fine since the pigeons damage statues and require cleanup.
Pigeons perching on seed-throwing tourists used to be the square’s trademark, but if you want to stay on the city’s good side and avoid getting pooped on (even though it is, surprisingly, considered good luck), opt for wine at a patio and watch the birds milling around instead. That sounds more appealing anyway.
Taking gum to Singapore
The import of chewing gum has been illegal in Singapore since 1992 due to the damage it caused to the public transit system. While your bubblegum may seem harmless, Singapore’s government says the nation spent $106,000 (U.S.) per year cleaning up gum litter and damage before the ban, and can punish those caught importing or selling gum with a fine or even jail time.
Some gum is now permitted for “therapeutic” purposes, i.e. nicotine gum and sugar-free gum with dental health benefits, but sugary bubble gum is still a no-go.
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)
