Sussex Police have arrested two people for criminal damage offences.
Police received reports of two people near Railway Approach, East Grinstead, on Tuesday 13 March allegedly shooting pigeons on the roof with catapults. Officers attended the scene and arrested both suspects.
A 21-year-old man of no fixed address was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, conspiracy to destroy or damage a property and having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.
A 17-year-old boy of Edenbridge, Kent, was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, conspiracy to destroy or damage a property and having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.
Both have been released under investigation and the investigation continues.
Anyone with information is asked to report online or call 101 quoting reference Operation Compound.
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 days of Redruth residents being aerially bombarded by pooing pigeons are now over after a ‘humane’ solution was found.
Last year it was reported that one fed-up resident complained how the pooing birds were putting lives at risk.
The Bond Street Railway Bridge, adjacent to Alma Place, has been a popular nesting place for pigeons for a number of years and the birds living there could regularly be seen splattering the pavement below and those who dared walk by.
A local man, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “They nest under the bridge and poo on the pavement, street signs and pedestrian crossing push buttons.
“People are at risk of health from infection from the faeces and, in wet weather, slipping on the pigeon mess, which is slippery, and they could end up in the road and run over by passing traffic.
“So the situation is not being dealt with and only the road sweeper cleans the pavement on odd occasions.”
However it now appears a solution has finally been found, according to Redruth town councillor Mike Chappell.
He posted on his Facebook page: “RAILWAY BRIDGE PIGEON PROBLEM FINALLY SOLVED!
“The railway bridge over Bond Street, Redruth, at its junction with Station Hill, is finally clear of pigeons and the mess they make on the pavements below following the completion of a programme of works to mesh off the underside of the bridge.
“Major cleaning has been required down the years in order to ensure public safety on the pavements.
“This humane way of dealing with a longstanding environmental and public health issue followed receipt of many complaints from the public and subsequent inter agency work between Redruth Town Council, Network Rail and the Highways Department with Redruth Town Council part financing the work.”
Town and Cornwall councillor Barbara Ellenbroek said previously that following town council discussions, Network Rail revealed that it felt the issue wasn’t a health hazard and therefore if Redruth Town Council wanted to do anything it would cost in the region of £10,000 due to associated road closures.
However despite the previous concerns it appears that the issue has now been resolved.
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.
Video footage showing dozens of pigeons lying dead on the ground and others limping was released Friday by an animal rights group that secretly filmed members of the Alabama Forestry Association taking part in a live pigeon shoot.
The video, which was shot legally from a drone, shows a man taking pigeons from a cage and throwing them into the air as participants circled the field waiting to shoot. Footage taken from the ground after the event was over shows close ups of pigeons limping, crawling, as well as many dead.
“We rescued as many as we could before nightfall,” said Steve Hindi, president and founder of Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), an animal rights group based in Illinois. “It was heartbreaking to leave knowing so many more were out there suffering. These birds are not eaten. The wounded are left to die slow, painful deaths from their wounds, predation or starvation.”
“The people from the Alabama Forestry Association aren’t hunters – they’re sociopaths,” added Hindi.
The Alabama Forestry Association, which is an education and lobbying group, did not respond to messages from AL.com asking for comment.
D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist at the Animal Wildlife Institute in Washington D.C., said that in these types of shoots, that have no meaningful purpose, the pigeons often experience excruciating deaths after being wounded. “Many die from infection in the worst way,” said Schubert, who used to protest live pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. “Hunters should be worried about their image because they look like thugs. Killing defenseless animals from close range for sport is not a good look.”
SHARK first heard about the pigeon shoot after a flier was given to them advertising the event, which was aimed at raising money for the Alabama Forestry Foundation, which is the education arm of the association. Tickets cost up to $1,000 a person.
SHARK collected the pigeons from the field in West Mobile and left them on land at the Alabama Forestry Association. It’s unclear what happened to then after that.
While there are a many Alabama laws that deal with cruelty against animals, it appears as if pigeon shooting is not illegal. There are also no federal laws that prohibit pigeon shooting. There are some laws that prohibit the killing of birds, but pigeons are exempt.
“Our argument, however, is that this does violate common decency as it causes extreme cruelty to living beings and is killing just for the sake of killing,” said Hindi. “If it isn’t illegal, it certainly should be.
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 turns out, Rick Leimann wasn’t just driving through the water for the fun of it. He wasn’t shouting “wahoo!” as he took his truck off road. He was desperately trying to save his 300 exotic pigeons from the rising flood.
“I know in my brains…that I didn’t do the right thing,” Leimann said. “But in my heart, I did the right thing because I had to get to my birds.”
Leimann keeps four breeds of exotic pigeons. He enters them in contests similar to dog and cat shows, but for pigeons. He even judges international shows for one Indian breed he’s had particular success with over the years. With another breed, Leimann has worked for 20 years to create a color he said is unique to his pigeons. Leimann’s pigeons aren’t just any old birds. After he took an interest in his neighbor’s pigeons as a boy, he said his parents bought him a pair of exotic pigeons as a confirmation gift when he was 13. He’s been raising and breeding exotic show pigeons ever since, for 41 years.
“If the water got in here, I couldn’t replace the breed I have. That’s why I had to get in here,” Leimann said. “Besides, I love them as my kids. They’re living animals, and I would sacrifice myself for my animals.”
While Leimann enjoys keeping the exotic pigeons as a hobby, he acknowledged it can look like a business, too. Buyers from the Middle East or China are sometimes willing to pay thousands of dollars for a show-winning bird. Leimann said he once sold a Grand National winner for $10,000.
Leimann was working on another sale Sunday morning as the flood waters rose. He’d been out at his Sayler Park boathouse (he owns a boat service business) checking on things at about 7 a.m. When he left, he estimated there was a foot or so of water on the road. No problem for his Ford F-150 pickup truck with 20 inch tires.
But Leimann lost track of the time. He ate breakfast while negotiating a pigeon sale. He had picked out some birds for a Chinese buyer while judging a show in Bahrain. Two or three hours went by. The Ohio River was just a few hours away from cresting at its highest point since 1997. When Leimann returned to the boathouse, the water had risen several more feet.
Leimann was worried about his birds. He wanted to move them upstairs. He didn’t realize how much deeper the water had gotten, he said.
“I thought I’d be all right,” he said.
At first, briefly, it was all right. But as the water rose higher and higher around the truck, Leimann figured it was already too late to stop. The water was coming over the hood. He pressed the gas in an effort to push through, but then the truck hit a boat trailer that was hidden under the murky water. It blew one of his tires and stopped the truck’s forward momentum.
“What made me realize I really messed up here is that, when the truck stopped, I’m bouncing, I’m floating like a piece of Styrofoam,” he said. “And water started coming in. I’m looking around the truck like, ‘What to do?'”
The truck was dead. Water was pooling around Leimann’s feet. He couldn’t get the door open.
“I’m sitting here and I’m looking around and I’m thinking, ‘Try to focus. Don’t panic,'” he said.
But the water continued to rise in the truck. Luckily, the window was open. When the water was up to his lap, Leimann took off his shoes (his grandpa taught him they’d weigh him down swimming), put his wallet in his mouth and slipped feet-first out the window.
Outside, Leimann clung to the door. The 6-foot-3 man was in chest-deep water. He could feel the current pulling the truck toward the harbor.
“When I came out I thought, ‘Man, I’m really in trouble,'” he said.
Leimann tried to pull the truck forward onto the dry land, but it wouldn’t budge. Soaking wet and barefoot, he ran for his Bobcat and an anchor rope. He tried to tow the truck with the Bobcat, and was able to pull the truck over the trailer. But a utility pole was in the way. He tied the other end of the rope to his gate and went inside to check on his birds and dry off.
“It scared me,” Leimann said. “I’ll never drive through the water again.”
After crossing and warming up, Leimann was able to secure his birds and his customers’ boats. When the water receded, his truck was still there, but it was totaled.
As a reminder, Cincinnati police have repeatedly warned to avoid flooded roads. According to the National Weather Service, 6 inches of fast-moving flood water can knock over a full-grown person. A foot of rushing water can carry away a small car, and 2 feet of water can float almost any SUV or pickup truck.
Leimann said he knew it was a dumb thing to do, but he’d do it again to save his birds.
“I love them like they’re my kids.”
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.
Have you ever been to Patan Durbar Square during morning hours? If you have, you must have noticed huge flocks of pigeons enjoying seeds offered by denizens of Patan and visitors. There are several positive aspects to it but more recently it is increasingly becoming an issue of public health, a nuisance and something that seriously warrants our attention. In this article I’m going to analyze pigeon feeding from different aspects. Analyzing something that is closely related to human behavior and recommending changes to such behaviors could be controversial but it is always rational to analyze and come up with a conclusion to contribute to wellbeing of the city, its landscape and people.
Cultural sides
Feeding birds has become a routine practice to many people in Nepal, especially in Kathmandu Valley. This behavior is inspired by culture and religion, mostly Hinduism and Buddhism that has altruism at its center and driven by the notion that human beings are most superior and hence caretaker of planet and its beings. Thus the practice is connected with different customs in Nepali culture. It is a dedicated routine of visitors in different temples like Krishna temple, Sankata, Mahankal, Indrayani, Kal Bharav and several other holy places.
Feeding birds has great psychological advantage. You feel connected to nature and it makes you feel happy. It is like a psychotherapy session for feeder and it helps them relieve stress. There is no specific data to quantify this, but it has definitely helped in maintaining a healthy psychological demeanor in people.
Health hazards
There are several public health related issues that need to be carefully analyzed. The droppings of pigeon are connected to several zoonosis that mostly affect people with weak immunity and patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer and pneumonia. Three major diseases are associated with pigeon feces: histoplasmosis (an illness caused by fungus that grows on pigeon droppings), psittacosiss (caused by bacteria found in droppings of pigeon and other birds) and cryptococcosis (a respiratory ailment caused by a fungus that grows and is found in pigeon droppings). Since most of these diseases afflict a small fraction of people (the ones with very weak immunity), it remains overlooked. Although there are no researches on number of pigeons in Kathmandu Valley, there has been noticeable increment in their population in the recent times.
In many countries pigeons in urban settings are considered as feral and source of health hazards. Several cities have banned bird feeding. Singapore, for example, fines whooping 500$ if you are found guilty of feeding birds. One of the major reasons for taking legal action against bird feeders is that it is very difficult to control birds since they are air borne the only way we can control their movements is by modifying our behavior.
Kathmandu valley is known for its ancient architectures but they are not well taken care of. Apart from earthquakes that caused severe damage to historical structures and buildings, the feces of pigeons are reducing the beauty of these artifacts. Pigeon droppings are acidic in nature and our ancient monuments that are mostly built of stones are subject to some serious and irreversible damage from this. It is also accelerating process of soiling (accumulation of soil) in the very complex artistic stone carvings, which in turn support vegetation on the top of the monuments. All this will cause severe damage to these monuments.
Feed them less
It is our duty to help make city more habitable. Limiting bird population is in hands of people of Kathmandu valley. We should start feeding them less often and feed lesser amount. Let them search their food on their own. Mother Nature has given them skills to do so. The abundance of food and shelter are major reason behind increment in their number. They can breed year round and hence their population keeps increasing.
While designing house we should not leave enough platforms and spaces where these birds can reside and breed. We can also use spikes or other means to avoid them in certain areas. Reducing the amount of food and removing shelter ground for these birds can help limit their population. Durbar Square management committees and temple management committees can also play an important role. Feeding pigeons is part of our culture but it warrants serious attention from people of Kathmandu Valley.
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.
