by johnnymarin | Jul 11, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Five years ago. a crow fell into the compound of B K Ajay Kumar Jain’s house. It lay there injured, helpless and terrified. Ajay who saw it was in a flap. For he didn’t know what to do. He wandered from pillar to post of a pet hospital and a veterinary hospital to get the injured crow treated. He realised that there were no good facilities to treat injured birds, and this gave him the idea to start a bird hospital.
His Pragathi Bird Charitable Hospital and Research Centre at Vidyaranyapuram has rescued and treated more than 1,250 birds. So far, he has rescued hundreds of birds by climbing buildings and trees, and crawling through drainage.
The 36-year-old runs this unique hospital that has an ICU and ambulance only for birds. The centre is a wing of NGO Pragathi Prathistan founded by Ajay. He did not know how to treat his winged rescues and he took lessons in first aid from veterinary specialist Dr Madan at Leela Veterinary Hospital. He says, “By keenly observing him for several months, I understood the behaviour of birds and learnt how to treat them.”
They have rescued several species including humming bird, wood peckers, pigeons, eagle, house swift, common mynah, owl, crow, bat, love birds, barbet, green tailed barker bird, brahminy kite, sparrows and parrots. A month ago, Ajay had treated more than 64 pelicans from Brindavan Gardens, after a huge tree was uprooted in heavy rains. The centre has also rescued and treated tortoises, mongooses, cats and dogs.
Once a bird is brought to the centre, they investigate the nature of the injury or illness. If the wounds are minor, they are treated at the centre. If they require a surgery, they are taken to Leela Veterinary Hospital; till date, 13 major surgeries have been done. After the birds recover, they are set free.
All expenses are borne by him and, for surgeries, he gets help from family members. He is the son of B A Kailash Chand Jain, veteran politician, Gandhian and president of Jain Sangha in Mysuru, and K Pista Kumari Bohra, social worker and national vice president of All India Jain Conference. He has three elder brothers and a younger sister who was ordained a Jain Sadhvi four years ago.He says, “People ask me why I waste my time and money on birds. I try to make them understand why we must save birds and the satisfaction we get from it, but they rarely get it”.
The centre, meanwhile, has made a mark. He says, “Initially, I got only one or two calls a month. Today, we receive two to three calls every day on an average. Most people call in to report about eagles in summer and pigeons in monsoon. Our 40 volunteers respond immediately.”
Ajay adds, “Most birds are injured from electrocution and accidents rise around Deepavali, when rockets hit them, and summer, when eagles fall to the ground from dehydration.”
People vouch for Ajay’s dedication. A resident of KRS Road, Savithri Mahendra, says, “We gave a call to him at 4.30 am one day, when we spotted injured birds caught in an uprooted tree. He rushed to the spot, climbed the tree and rescued them.”
Dr Srisha Bhat, adventure sports coordinator, says, “Many people still believe that touching an owl or a crow brings bad luck. If they do come into contact with these birds, they have a bath or do special pujas. But Ajay helps all birds without discrimination or hesitation.” Impressed by his effort, Srisha volunteers with the centre.Ventriloquist and magician Suma Rajkumar too became a volunteer with Pragathi Prathistan. “When we set the recovered birds free, it gives us great joy,” she says.
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 johnnymarin | Jul 10, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
FALLING roof tiles in SK Seri Kepong in Kuala Lumpur are putting pupils and staff at risk.
The school’s roof is in a such a bad state that the top floor, which has 10 classrooms, has not been used for the past two years because of leakage problem.
A check by StarMetro found the ceiling at the top floor had water marks and gaping holes where pigeons could be seen taking shelter.
The floor was dirty and filled with dust as well as bird droppings.
The library that was there has been relocated to a lower floor.
Parts of the school’s ground floor were also cordoned off to avoid accidents involving falling tiles, especially when it was windy or raining.
SK Seri Kepong headmaster Rosman Matnoor said school prefects were stationed near the prohibited sites during recess to ensure no pupils crossed into the dangerous area.
“I was posted to this school in June last year, which is when I came to know about the problem. “I raised the matter verbally with Kuala Lumpur Education Department and formally lodged a complaint in May after a thunderstorm.
“There are 214 pupils in this school that comprises preschool, primary and special education classes.
“We have enough classrooms despite the top floor being cordoned off, but this problem is a hazard and waste of space.
“The extra classrooms can be used by uniformed clubs for co-curricular activities,” he said during a meeting with Education officers and Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng to address the issue.
The department’s civil engineer Wan Norzaimi Mat said the Kuala Lumpur Education Department received a complaint on May 25 and had applied for an allocation to carry out repair works.
“We have been doing periodic maintenance on the roof over the years but because the building is in an area prone to crosswinds, the roof tiles are susceptible to being ripped off by strong winds.
“We have to find a better solution,” he said.
Lim said he would send a contractor to assess what immediate repair works could be done to avoid an unfortunate incident.
“I will apply for the RM20,000 emergency allocation granted to MPs to fund these repairs while waiting for the Education Ministry to act upon the complaint,” he said.
Parent-Teacher Association chairman Tan Chong Meng said he hoped the repair works would be carried out as soon as possible and the problem would be settled for good.
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 johnnymarin | Jul 9, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
It may sound like the product of an over-imaginative mind, but Operation Columba, a clandestine British bid to gain intelligence from occupied areas, was very real.
Between 1941 and 1944, around 16,000 avian agents, hidden in canisters with little parachutes attached, fell to the ground in rural France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The plucky pigeons sparked hundreds of tiny acts of resistance: villagers sending back messages, tied to the legs of the birds.
One group of villagers, led by a local priest, provided intelligence so valuable it was shown to Winston Churchill — but their brave defiance ultimately led them to a gruesome death.
Gordon Corera, an author and the BBC’s security correspondent, has pieced together details of that group, known by the codename Leopold Vindictive.
“I never thought I’d be writing about pigeons,” he laughs.
He began his research a few years ago after coming across a news story about the discovery of a dead pigeon’s leg in a chimney in Surrey, in South East England.
“I kid you not,” he says.
“The dead pigeon’s leg had a message attached to it which appeared to come from World War II. I found it bizarre and fascinating.”
The message was a series of random letters — a code not even the country’s best minds could crack.
So, Corera began a quest to unravel the mysterious message himself.
It took him to the National Archives, where he found many files on the little-known Secret Pigeon Service.
They were mostly boring — like where to store bird feed — but one, which had only just been declassified, stood out.
“It was called Columba. It was a War Office file from a [section] of military intelligence I’d never heard of — MI14(d). I mean we’ve all heard of MI5, but MI14(d)?” he says.
“Even more bizarrely, it had a picture of a pigeon, and then a cartoon of Hitler lying on his back, as if the pigeon had just done its business on Hitler, causing him to fall over.
“I’d never seen a wartime file with such an almost absurdly comic cover to it.”
Message 37
Inside the file was a rich trove of messages sent from occupied Europe via homing pigeon.
“They were from ordinary people, who’d picked up a pigeon in a field [and responded to] a questionnaire: ‘What do you see in your local area? Are there any Nazi troop movements? What’s morale like?'” Corera says.
Around 1,000 messages came back, but one was different.
Message 37 looked like a work of art, with detailed, colourful maps and writing too small to read with the naked eye.
It had been rolled up tightly into the size of a postage stamp so it could fit back into the cannister — and it produced 12 pages of raw intelligence.
“You can see in the files the British admiralty saying, ‘We weren’t sure about these pigeons, but this is real intelligence’,” Corera says.
“They showed it to Churchill, [I think because] it embodied the spirit of resistance… the idea that there were people out there in occupied Europe who wanted to resist, who wanted to work with Britain, who were willing to take huge risks.”
The Leopold Vindictive
Corera began to wonder about the people behind the message.
“The file had this codename, Leopold Vindictive, but it didn’t have their real names. I became slightly obsessed with trying to find out who they were,” he says.
“I knew they were Belgian villagers, so I started searching Belgian historical records and archives.”
The trail eventually led to Jozef Raskin, a Catholic priest who lived near the city of Bruges and was the leader of the resistance group.
That then led him to Raskin’s niece, Brigitte, and together they began to piece together his life story.
“He was a dedicated patriot. He wasn’t a normal priest, I think it’s worth saying,” Corera says.
“In the First World War, because he was quite an artist, he’d been involved in drawing maps of German positions in the trenches. So he already had a bit of a feel for military intelligence.
“He’d gone to China in between the wars as a missionary, and he’d learnt calligraphy, and how to write, that gave him the ability to write those tiny letters.
“And he also had a real network of friends across the country, because he went as a travelling preacher raising funds for the missionary organisation he worked for.”
The Leopold Vindictive was named for two of Raskin’s contacts: Belgium’s King Leopold, for whom Raskin had served as a chaplain, and a British admiral named Roger Keyes, whose ship was the Vindictive.
“He actually uses the admiral as a reference in the pigeon [message], and says ‘if you want to know who I am, contact the admiral. I was with him in 1940’.
“That’s one of the reasons they took the information so seriously.”
The group provided intelligence about troop movements, the results of bombing raids and specific information about a particular chateau the Germans were using as a base for their marine forces.
The two sides desperately tried to stay in touch and keep the information flowing.
“They tried to drop more pigeons, but the pigeons are hard to drop in a precise location, and they kept missing,” Corera says.
‘A gruesome, awful end’
Eventually Britain sent two MI6 agents to Belgium. Their mission included making contact with the Leopold Vindictive.
But by this stage Nazis had infiltrated parts of the resistance network, and they were closing in fast.
“I’m afraid that was the reality of wartime — the risks for these resistance groups, most would not survive,” Corera says.
“Surviving even for a year or two would be the exception, rather than the rule.”
Raskin was arrested and taken to Germany, where he was beheaded at a prison site. Two other members of his group were also killed.
“I’m afraid it was only discovered by their families after the war that they were executed there. It’s a gruesome, awful end,” Corera says.
“You want a happy ending to these stories, and you want to be able to say that it all worked. In this case the intelligence operation succeeded for a while, but it had its limits.”
But he thinks Raskin and others like him earned themselves everlasting respect.
“They do embody a spirit of taking those risks… for what they believed — their patriotism for their country, their desire to resist tyranny, in Raskin’s case his faith in God,” Corera says.
“That was a risk they understood and they paid a terrible price for it.”
And for the hundreds of other ordinary villagers who wrote a message on rice paper and sent it via pigeon, there was a powerful symbolism at play.
“They would watch them fly away, hopefully back to Britain,” Corera says.
“For them it was a symbol of hope and liberation. To liberate that pigeon was also emotionally very powerful for them, this idea of flying away and the hope that eventually their country could be free.”
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 johnnymarin | Jul 8, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
A mall in California hired Remmy — a Harris’ hawk — two years ago to hunt down uninvited pigeons.
The renovation of the Broadway Plaza mall in Walnut Creek, Calif., attracted dozens of pigeons.
“We had a major pigeon problem and were unsure of the best way to get it under control,” said Shelly Dress, senior manager of property management at the mall.
So Dress turned to Hawk Pros, a company that uses falcons to get rid of pest birds.
The practice helps avoid using chemicals and only scares away the targets, letting them live.
“A scared pigeon is an educated pigeon,” said Remmy’s handler, Bridget Maguire-Colton. “That pigeon will return to its flock and let the other birds know there’s a hawk here who means business. Pigeons are smart birds — they will remember where the hawk is and will seek out another venue for shelter, water and food.”
Separately, a flight attendant for a Chinese airline pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle almost two dozen spotted and box turtles from Los Angeles to China.
Hauqian Qu entered his guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy yesterday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
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 johnnymarin | Jul 7, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Does a show that consists of LED-lit flocks of pigeons flying through the sky over a dilapidated former golf course in Thamesmead technically count as theatre? Dunno, don’t care, but I’m very happy I saw US artist Duke Riley’s beyond-sublime ‘Fly By Night’ (co-produced by LIFT, GDIF and 14-18 NOW).
At a signal from Riley and his assistants, the approximately 1,500 pigeons surge out of their illuminated coop, and wheel about the skies in tight, agile formations. As night descends, the birds cease to be discernible, with only the clear LEDs they wear around their legs visible. They look like clouds of shooting stars, like swarming constellations, like some sort of strange and wondrous celestial portent. It is really, really fucking cool.
‘Fly By Night’ is also notionally a commemoration of the messenger pigeons that were key to the British war effort a century ago. This doesn’t necessarily come across particularly obviously, but it’s not an unwelcome idea – it’s perhaps more accurate to call this a suggested train of thought rather than an actual message.
For me, the greater depth to the show was in how it functions as a commune with nature and the stark, hard landscape of Thamesmead. Not the hippest district in London by a long shot, on a perfectly clear solstice night it felt genuinely magical: a perfect, fading primrose-and-pale-cornflower sky chased with the crisp silhouettes of flying birds, the only noise the beat of wings and the odd, mournful whistle from Ellis and his team. In an unfamiliar, industrialised landscape that is, conversely, far closer to the countryside than most Londoners tend to get, it all just felt pretty transcendent, like the glowing birds were somehow a natural manifestation of the landscape, rather than outsiders here to perform a show.
You could argue over whether it ‘means anything’ that the pigeons come home. But you’re almost certainly never going to see a spectacle quite like it again. There are two performances left, and I would seriously urge you to try and make one.
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)
