by Ryan Ponto | Jun 25, 2017 | Bird Netting
Nowhere is the biological paradigm “survival of the fittest” better illustrated than it is in New York City. Passengers at Kings Highway Station saw the law of nature in action on Monday when they witnessed a massive black crow feasting on the guts of a flailing, gore-covered pigeon. The macabre scene was captured in a viral video that tracked the crow’s efforts to scatter its victim’s entrails across the subway platform. The crow succeeded, with aplomb; it congratulated itself by pecking out the pigeon’s still-beating heart — the bloody cherry on top of a sumptuous meal.
“New York City, it’s either eat or get eaten,” the video’s narrator, who mistakes the crow for a raven, says. “He just ate his homie! Damn.”
While it’s easy to label the crow a demonic cannibal-murderer, crow expert Kaeli Swift, a University of Washington Ph.D. candidate studying corvid thanatology — crow death — tells Inverse not to be so hasty. While the situation certainly casts the crow in a homicidal light, she points out, we don’t actually know what the pigeon’s deal was before the crow got to it. She suggests the crow might in fact be innocent, because the pigeon was already dead.
“I would be more surprised if the crow killed the pigeon,” Swift says in an e-mail. “My guess is it had a run in with a train or particularly unpleasant person.” Cornell University veterinary pathologist Dr. Beth Buckles, DVM, supporting Swift’s theory, adds that “If it had been alive there would have been a blood spurt.”The pigeon’s panicked twitching, she points out, was probably due to residual nerve activity.
Our sympathy for the pigeon shouldn’t distract us from the fact that they, too, can be nasty. “In my experience, adult pigeons can hold their own against crows and I’ve even seen them chase crows away from food,” says Swift.
Murder charges aside, it’s the crow’s cannibalistic behavior that really has New Yorkers freaked out. But Swift is nonplussed. “Nothing about this behavior strikes me as particularly unusual,” she says, in spite of one particularly gruesome scene where the pigeon’s intestines stretch out before it, like a blood-slimed leash. “Although eating carrion or active predation make up only a minority of an American crow’s diet, they take what they can get.”
Crows are considered omnivores, which means they’ll pretty much eat anything: small mammals, reptiles, eggs, seeds, fruit, and yes, other birds. They are also known to scavenge — a technical term that biologists use to describe animalsthat eat dead animal flesh, not garbage. If a fresh meal presents itself to a crow, especially in the middle of New York’s food desert, that crow is unlikely to let it go to waste. “Taking advantage of weak animals is also not unusual, and why they have such a vitriolic relationship with sheep farmers,” Swift points out, referring to reports of crows descending upon farms to devour baby sheep.
“Not a particularly pleasant way to go but wild animals aren’t here to appeal to our moral sensibilities,” says Swift. “They’re just here, doing their badass thing whether we find it awesome or awful.”
On second watch, the crow’s behavior doesn’t appear any less brutal, but the relish with which it feasts on the mutilated pigeon corpse may stir up familiar sensations. As it triumphantly plucks out its prize — the pigeon’s ruby heart (it might actually just be a gizzard)— and thoughtfully considers it, you might recall how it feels to contemplate a fine slice of tuna sashimi, or a ripe heirloom tomato, before surrendering it to your lips. That feeling is what binds humans, crows, and all of our animal brethren; the one true law of nature — hunger.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jun 24, 2017 | Bird Netting
Gift of Life Foundation president Paul Vincenti has vented his frustration over the fact that the authorities and public caused an outcry over the pigeon cull which was going to take place in Vittoriosa while acting indifferently before threats to human life.
Posting a video on the social media, real estate guru Paul Vincenti said that society suddenly cares more for a pigeon than a human life. He was referring to embryo freezing, a practice which the foundation is against.
“Why do we react with such determination when it comes to protecting what some people see as a pest, a flying rodent? Why does the government react so positively and in favour of animal rights, but when we speak about the embryo and IVF, you and I become something less than a pigeon?” Vincenti was referring to the recent pigeon culling which was to take place in Vittoriosa. The Local Council followed in the footsteps of other localities which were ‘infested’ by pigeons and took the decision to shoot the pigeons. The culling caused outrage, as it had when a similar exercise was going to take place in Sliema. Animal rights activists also voiced their concern and the government quickly reacted to convince the Local Council to cancel the cull.
The government’s will to interfere in the issue and save the pigeons was welcomed by many, but it seemed to frustrate pro-life campaigners such as Vincenti, who deemed it fit to compare it with the embryo freezing issue.
“All of a sudden we are a disposable commodity which could be considered becoming spare parts,” he adds in his ten-minute video.
He said he is convinced that the majority of the Maltese people value life in conception, and they are against the idea of creating excess embryos. “The last thing we want is to create excess embryos which always die when they are being thawed to be placed in the womb of the mother, basically abortion by a different name.”
Then he moves on to compare the embryo left in freezers issue with slaves. “It is history repeating itself. It happened with the slaves owned by plantation owners.” The comparison is then extended to the Second World War atrocities like AuschwitzBirkenau. “The people thrown into concentration camps were treated as non-persons. Are we going to repeat the same problem?”
“Why do we emotionally connect with a pigeon, but completely undermine our own dignity as human beings and shoot ourselves in the foot?”
The current law on embryo freezing and IVF prohibits embryo freezing except in instances where the fertilised eggs cannot be transferred because of exceptional circumstances.
“Good luck if you are a pigeon in Malta. It seems there are those willing to defend you. Can we hope that defence of human life receives the same enthusiasm? Can we be mature and progressive enough to realise that history repeats itself?”
He concludes by addressing the Members of Parliament. “If all the MPs from the three parties elected to Parliament declared they are pro-life, then they cannot use that power to say they have changed their mind.”
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 Ryan Ponto | Jun 23, 2017 | Bird Netting
A pigeon briefly disrupted a Wimbledon qualifying match Tuesday between Amandine Hesse and Miyu Kato. Hesse swatted at the invader with her racket and a ball boy chased after it, trying to scare it off the court. Unperturbed, the pigeon alighted briefly on the net, before heading to a tree next to the court.
Rufus, the hawk that patrols the Wimbledon skies and scares off pigeons and other winged annoyances, was not yet on duty.
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 Ryan Ponto | Jun 22, 2017 | Bird Netting
The pigeon, trained for long-distance flight, landed in the residential area abutting the historic fort after deviating from its scheduled flight path.
A local youth, known for his penchant for rearing pigeons, turned a saviour for a racing pigeon from a far-off place that made an unscheduled stop at Khammam two days ago.
The pigeon, trained for long-distance flight, landed in the residential area abutting the historic fort after deviating from its scheduled flight path on Tuesday evening.
On noticing the bird lying along a roadside shop in a feeble condition tagged with a red colour banded ring on its leg, the passer-by initially grew suspicious of the bird, mistaking it to be a trained avian sent on a “spying mission”.
A ‘paan’ shop owner alerted Mohammad Shafi, a bird lover of the residential locality surrounding the fort, about the bird.
Mr. Shafi examined the leg-ring of the bird and established its identity as a racing pigeon belonging to a Chennai-based racing pigeon club. He then took the bird to his house, gave it nutritious diet and kept it in a special enclosure.
Speaking to The Hindu, he said the bird might have lost its flight direction due to exhaustion. An identification code (NHPA15 2907) and a mobile number (9944495035) are printed on the banded ring fixed to the pigeon’s leg.
“I have called the mobile number and passed on the information,” Mr. Shafi 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)
by Ryan Ponto | Jun 21, 2017 | Bird Netting
Hong Kong people were in a flap when they spotted a few pigeons in Victoria Park sporting suspicious looking red sticks on their tails, but an expert allayed their concerns, saying the attachments were simply whistles.
Pigeon racing expert Leung Kam-hung told Apple Daily that the suspicious looking red sticks objects were whistles, which helped alert owners that their birds had return home from a long distance flight. The whistles created a buzzing sound as the birds flew.
Leung said these pigeons might have been set free by their owners after the government began reducing the number of licenses allowing people to raise pigeons following the bird flu outbreaks that flare up in the city.
Officers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said the whistles would be a burden to pigeons, and affect their mobility and flexibility.
SPCA officers made on-site observations, but failed to capture the pigeons with whistles for further examination. It said it would try to remove the whistles from the affected birds later.
Pigeon racing was once popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but its appeal has since declined due to the bird flu virus and controversies over illegal betting in the sport.
In 2013, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) from the United States found that around one million pigeons died in long distance races every year in Taiwan.
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)
