by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 18, 2019 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
BioMed Central
A sampling of pigeons captured on the streets of Madrid has revealed the bacterial pathogens they carry. Researchers found two bugs that were highly prevalent in the bird population, Chlamydophila psittaci and Campylobacter jejuni, both of which cause illness in humans.
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Fernando Esperón from the Animal Health Research Center, Madrid, Spain, worked with a team of researchers to analyse blood and enema samples taken from 118 pigeons caught using gun-propelled nets.
He said, “the present study demonstrates the extremely high prevalence of two zoonotic pathogens in feral pigeons in Madrid. At the same time, infection with these pathogens did not appear to be associated with any harmful clinical signs in the birds themselves. This leads to the hypothesis that pigeons act as asymptomatic reservoirs of Chlamydophila psittaci and Campylobacter jejuni. These birds may therefore pose a public health risk to the human population.”
Chlamydophila psittaci was found in 52.6% of the pigeons captured, while Campylobacter jejuni was present in 69.1%. Although there have been few reports of disease transmission between pigeons and humans, it can occur by aerosols, direct contact or indirect contact through food and water contamination.
According to Esperón, “Thermophilic Campylobacter species are considered the primary pathogens responsible for acute diarrhea in the world. In fact, in many countries such as England and Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand Campylobacter jejuni infection causes more cases of acute diarrhea than infection by Salmonella species.”
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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by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 16, 2019 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Bird Spike, Bird Spikes, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
Dirtiest Hotel in America” Looks to Clean Up
A day after being dubbed the filthiest in America, a Tennessee hotel is pledging to clean up.
The Grand Resort Hotel & Convention Center was ranked the filthiest hotel in America, according to ratings compiled and released by the travel review site TripAdvisor.
The historic Smoky Mountains hotel in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., was graded “terrible” by 161 of 224 reviewers on the site. Twenty-six called it “poor” and 15 gave it an “average” grade.
But CEO and General Manager Nicky Darrell Chaney said he has already fired one manager, hired a new maintenance manager and new head of housekeeping, and is in the process of using a new sanitizer to clean the rooms, reports CBS affiliate WVLT in Knoxville.
“We knew we had some problems, and we’ve started to work on these problems,” said Nicky Chaney, President and CEO of the company that runs the hotel. Chaney took over operations in December and vows to restore their public image.
“I fired one of the managers, I hired new maintenance, and new housekeeper,” he said. “We’re proud of what we’re doing now, and were excited about where we’re going to be in the next few weeks.
Chaney took over just last month as president and CEO of KMS Enterprises, which runs the Grand and several nearby properties owned by hotel magnate Kenneth M. Seaton.
“This is an issue the company is taking very seriously,” Chaney said a statement Tuesday.
Seaton also is a defendant in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual harassment of two former housekeepers hired to work in KMS hotels, the Sentinel reports.
Meanwhile, the Grand will have to keep making changes to stay ahead of negative reviews – and the unwanted spotlight following the TripAdvisor “award.”
“This is a nasty place, would not let my dog sleep there,” reviewer LaFolettePat wrote last week under the headline “health inspector please.”
JordynC’s assessment: “If you are looking for a hotel with: pubic hair stuck to the bathroom floor in some unidentifiable, gelatinous liquid; chewing tobacco spit oozing down the halls and corridors; spiders actively making webs in every corner of your room; carpeting so greasy and dirty you wouldn’t want to sit your luggage down – let alone walk around barefoot; dingy bedsheets and towels as rough and thin as sandpaper; and a room so putrid and smelly it causes a gag-reflex when you walk in… by all means, stay at The Grand Resort.”
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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by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 20, 2019 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
WIMBLEDON, England — Imagine the fluttering kerfuffle.
Roger Federer is serving for the Wimbledon title. He tosses the ball and cranes his neck.
Plop. A gift from a pigeon, right on the forehead.
Luckily, something like that hasn’t happened. At least not yet, not during a big match in recent memory.
For that, Wimbledon can thank a brown and chestnut bird of prey with keen eyes, a four-foot wingspan and bone-crushing talons. His name is Rufus the Hawk, and he plays a crucial role at the world’s oldest tennis tournament.
Every day, in the early morning, well before the matches begin, Rufus soars the skies over the All England Club, on the prowl for pigeons.
Without him, Wimbledon just might descend into aviary chaos. Pigeons could reign supreme, not just in the air, but also in the rafters, on the rooftops and across the grass courts.
The place is perfect for pigeons. “All of the grass seeds, all of the nooks and crannies, and the food waste from the fans,” Wayne Davis, one of Rufus’s handlers, said. Without Rufus, he reckoned, pigeons would number in the hundreds.
Wayne Davis, one of Rufus’s handlers, with a younger companion of the hawk. “Feral pigeons breed year round,” he said. “If you have just one pair breeding in the rafters at Centre Court, you would end up by the end of the year with about 40 more birds. You could have Roger Federer serving and clouds of pigeons wafting about.
“And pigeon poop, too, of course.”
Flocks of pigeons became a growing problem in the late 1990s, a threat to the prim fastidiousness that Wimbledon prizes above all. That was when the All England Club telephoned Davis and his family-run Avian Environmental Consultants.
Another of their birds was the first to patrol Wimbledon. Then Rufus the Hawk took over. He has become an English icon.
From dawn to dusk, he soars, on the prowl for pigeons. He doesn’t kill them. He toys with them, barreling from above, twisting, turning, squawking and nipping at their wings, announcing to all that the skies over Wimbledon belong to him.
“The pigeons learned he was in charge,” Davis said. “Other than a few stragglers, they stopped coming around like they did before. He scares them away.”
Rufus would have been a fearsome predator in the wild. Although he weighs just 1 pound 6 ounces, he cuts a much larger figure with his confident bearing and cascade of feathers.
He can spread his talons almost as wide as a person’s hand, and he can see 10 times better than any human. He can focus on a pigeon from a mile way.
Davis and his daughter, Imogen, feed him by hand because his weight is important. At less than a pound and a half, he can become too hungry and might have a pigeon for lunch. Maybe in front of the royal box.
They have taught him to come when they whistle.
Most often, he does.
Rufus soars and (almost) always comes back.
On one occasion three years ago, however, Imogen Davis had to chase him down at a nearby golf course. He took off again, across a road, then out of sight. She followed the jingle of his small bronze bell, attached to a talon.
She found him in the middle of a pond, standing in a thicket of weeds, hovering over a freshly killed duck. She couldn’t let him eat it. A full tummy would mean he wouldn’t come home until he was hungry again.
She waded through muck and lily pads, then through waist-high water. When she trooped back to Wimbledon, past crowds lined up to watch tennis in their finery, she had Rufus in her clutches.
One time, he vanished overnight.
Wayne Davis had left the bird in the family camper, parked outside an apartment they stay at during tournaments. Davis tucked him into the black cage that is his bedroom, and cracked a camper window just enough for ventilation. In the morning, Rufus and his cage were gone.
Someone had broken in and stolen him.
“My heart sank,” Imogen Davis said. She, her parents and her siblings had bought Rufus from a breeder when he was 16 weeks old, and he had become a member of the family.
“It was terrible,” she said. “There were a lot of tears.”
By then, Rufus had celebrity status, even a Twitter handle. The theft of Rufus the Hawk became headline news.
“Game, set and snatched,” wrote The Daily Mail.
The police said to expect someone to be in touch, demanding a ransom.
Three days went by. Then, from a phone booth, someone telephoned the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. No one knows for sure what had transpired — maybe Rufus had gotten away from the birdnappers, or maybe they decided to simply give him up — but he had been spotted in a park.
Imogen Davis, another handler, said Rufus once stayed in the Centre Court rafters overnight. The animal welfare charity picked him up. Rufus went back to work. He hasn’t missed a day since.
Imogen Davis said Rufus has taught her important lessons. Like the morning he flew into the Centre Court rafters and decided to stay there.
Two hours passed. Then five. Then 10. He still wouldn’t budge. “Luckily it wasn’t during the actual tournament,” she said, a nod to the fact that Rufus polices Wimbledon year round. She and her mother, Donna, wrapped themselves in towels and spent the night on Centre Court.
“We didn’t sleep in the royal box,” Imogen Davis said. “We didn’t sleep at all.”
The next day, Rufus came down.
The lesson was a lot like Zen: Rufus never gets ruffled. He does things in his own good time.
Has he ever, in his own good time, decided to perch in the Center Court rafters during a match?
No, Davis said. She chuckled. “But if he did, he would just stay perched up there, saying, ‘I don’t know who Roger Federer is.’”
by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 31, 2019 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products
Occasionally, you see them munching on a pizza rind or some other recognizable discarded food, but most of the time they seem to be pecking at nothing at all.
I am not planning to start a pigeon Facebook enterprise, but unlike virtually all New Yorkers, I do not loathe pigeons and give them credit for living a tough life on the mean and unforgiving streets of Manhattan.
And if you actually stop and look at them, which no one does, their plumage can be quite striking. Yes they are plump and the neck-snapping walk is mind-boggling — what evolutionary rationale could that possibly have? — but they demonstrate an unrelenting pluck to survive in the city that I find admirable.
Just like seagulls, you never see a young or old pigeon, and never a sickly one. They are all the same size and seem in excellent health. I’ve never seen a dead pigeon or a squished one, which is remarkable for all their bicycle- and car-dodging. Not to overthink this, for all of their daily vicissitudes they seem pretty content with their lives, although their expressionless faces could be masking all kinds of nameless dreads.
One activity that seems to definitely give them great pleasure is communal flight. As I look east from our 16th floor apartment, I often see sizable flocks of pigeons soaring in synchronized movements that have no purpose, just banking, turning this way and that, diving and climbing.
They are clearly playing. They will, as a group, alight on a random rooftop, cogitate for a while and then set off on another flight maneuver, happy as clams.
If there is an afterlife, this playful flying would not make me elect to come back as a pigeon. I’m on record as choosing to come back as a chickadee. But if I have no choice and I’m forced to come back as a pigeon, I could handle it. The key, it seems, is a sufficient stream of pizza rinds.
Seagulls seem a lot like pigeons. They are always scamming for food and can fly beautifully. They seem smarter than pigeons and have a more sculpted shape. Gratefully, they have eliminated the disturbing neck-snapping walk, and they are artful at catching food thrown at them by the bored human denizens of Crescent Beach.
Which brings me to a seagull story. It is a third-hand story and its veracity cannot be verified. It was told to me by my nephew on Cape Cod, and he is a known embellisher. There is a thin line between embellishment and prevarication, and I am pretty sure he was sticking to the embellishment side. Not betting my life on that, however.
It starts with a surf-casting fisherman and a nearby observing seagull. The seagull watches as the surf-caster baits up his hook and heaves it into the waves. This is repeated several times with no success, fish-catching-wise. This is where it gets interesting.
This story wants you to believe that a light goes on in the observing seagull’s brain. The light says one, there is food being flung into the air and two, I can fly. Ergo, an intercept is entirely possible. But the light does not fully grasp the concept of “fish hook.”
You probably see where this is going. A perfectly timed intercept is made and the hook lodges in the seagull’s beak, surprising both human and bird actors in this story.
Embellishment alert: The fisherman starts reeling in the seagull and eventually gets it on the beach where a concerned woman assists the fisherman to calm the seagull while he fetches his needle-nose pliers to extract the hook. The seagull is not pleased, and it takes a while to wrestle the hook out.
A moment passes as the humans and seagull digest what just happened. Another light goes on in the seagull’s brain. With good intentions, the concerned woman is carefully holding the seagull but gets no credit for this act of kindness. The light says take a nip of the woman’s cheek and get the heck out of here. End of story.
True story? We cannot be sure.
But it sure beats any pigeon story I know.
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by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 31, 2019 | Bird Netting, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
WOLCOTT — Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter the way one throws out an empty disposable coffee cup — by tossing them into a trash dumpster.
The night caretaker at the northbound Interstate 65 rest area in White County found the first 57 birds in the middle of December as he took the trash out, said Kim Hoover of the Hoots to Howls Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in rural Pulaski County. Some of the birds trapped inside boxes died, she said.
She took the birds and found homes for most of them, keeping the blind and crippled birds at the rehabilitation center.
Then on Feb. 28, the caretaker found more boxes of birds in the same dumpster at the same rest area.
“Same mozzarella cheese boxes. Same person’s name and number on the leg ban,” she said.
The first group of birds found were standing in feces that were caked to their feet and matted in their feathers, Hoover said. It appeared they’d been in the dumpster for a while and were in poor health.
The second group was found in better condition and did not have trash piled on top of the boxes, indicating that they had not been in the dumpster that long, Hoover said.
That person’s name on the leg band is Bahman Ghassab from Dublin, Ohio, Hoover said. The bands also had a telephone number to reach Ghassab. The Journal & Courier called that number on Wednesday, but it is no longer a working number.
But after the find in December, Hoover said one of her associates did call the number, and Ghassab answered.
“He said he sold some birds to someone in Florida and in Illinois,” Hoover said, “and he would not give any more info than that.
“When asked why would you sell sick starving and injured pigeons and better yet why would someone buy them in this condition, the conversation ended,” Hoover said.
The Journal & Courier contacted John DeCarlo Jr., president of the National Pigeon Association. He checked the association’s membership list, and Ghassab is not a member.
“These birds don’t fly,” Hoover said.
The Journal & Courier texted photos of the birds to DeCarlo, who is in California.
“I don’t know why they don’t fly,” he said, noting this particular breed of pigeon is the Iranian high fliers.
The Iranian high fliers are capable of flight, unlike the one particular breed that Hoover mistakenly was told the rescued birds belonged to, DeCarlo said.
The birds might not fly because they are sick or are under fed or are under conditioned, DeCarlo said. Or they might have been altered so they can’t fly, he added.
Someone told Hoover the birds were likely part of an illegal gambling ring, but that doesn’t seem likely, according to DeCarlo.
The only gambling in the pigeon hobby is among racing pigeons, and these are not racing pigeons, he said.
The flightless pigeon breed is known as parlor rollers. They have been genetically bred not to fly, and when they are nervous or excited, they roll, Decarlo said. There is a competition among parlor rollers to see whose bird can roll the furthest, but it’s not cruel because this is the natural way these birds behave, according to several pigeon experts interviewed Wednesday by the Journal & Courier.
Everyone interviewed Wednesday was incensed by the way these birds were discarded.
Hoover said no one seems interested in investigating it as a criminal case.
“From what I’m told, they’re not pets; they’re not farm animals, so nobody does anything,” she said.
National Pigeon Association Secretary/Treasurer Tim Heidrich of Georgia doesn’t see why it couldn’t be prosecuted.
“To me, it’s like animal cruelty,” Heidrich said. “There are ways to get rid of them without being cruel about it.”
“There are quite a few small shows,” he said. “You can go to these things and sell them — give them away to the kids.”
DeCarlo suggested giving unwanted pigeons to 4Hers so they can learn the hobby and show them.
Finding so many birds thrown away begs the question of whether other birds met with a similar fate only went undiscovered at other locations.
“We don’t know if this is the first time,” Hoover said. “Is it happening at other rest parks? We don’t know.
“I just wish he’d stop. These birds don’t deserve to be thrown out.”
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