Las Vegas review journal write-up on pigeons

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http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Aug-02-Wed-2000/news/14088840.html

 

Sympathy could lead to reprieve for pigeons

 

The neck-wringing plan to eliminate pests from city

buildings upsets animal-rights groups.

 

By Jan Moller

Review-Journal

 

The pigeons soiling City Hall may get a stay of execution.

 

A top aide to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said

Tuesday that the mayor is searching for a more humane way to

control the city's pigeon population after the the city undertook

aggressive efforts earlier this month to keep its buildings

feces-free.

 

" We received an outpouring of commentary from all over the

world, " said Bill Cassidy, a senior Goodman aide. " The mayor

has directed me to make inquiries, and he's looking for an

alternative solution to the killing of the pigeons. "

 

The pigeons became a political matter after a

Review-Journal story detailed the city's plan to trap the birds

and wring their necks as a means of removing them from city

property.

 

Under the " pigeon abatement and control program, " the city

would spend $56,000 to pigeon-proof its buildings by erecting

nets and spikes to make them inhospitable to the birds. The rest

of the money was to be spent on a wildlife biologist whose job

would be to bait and trap the pigeons and then kill them by

snapping their necks.

 

That report ruffled the feathers of at least two national

animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society of the

United States. On July 24, the group wrote a letter to Goodman

urging him to halt the pigeoncide.

 

" We respectfully request that you immediately stop the trap

and kill program and have the entire issue reevaluated and

addressed from a more comprehensive and inclusive planning

perspective, " the letter read.

 

The letter cited a 1995 book on feral pigeons published by

Oxford University Press that claims " neither killing nor removal

are efficient or recommended ways of reducing pigeon

population. "

 

The pigeon program also raised the ire of Cassidy, a former

CIA operative and devout Buddhist who raised racing pigeons

in his youth. Cassidy asked Goodman to use his mayoral bully

pulpit to defend the defenseless birds.

 

David Riggleman, the city's communication director,

confirmed that plans are under way to find a more palatable way

of protecting city property. One idea is to trap the birds and

transport them out of harm's way. But Riggleman added that a

final decision has not been reached, as city officials want to

make sure the pigeons don't just become someone else's

problem.

 

" We don't want to take the pigeons from one place and just

give them to someone else, " he said.

 

Cassidy estimated the city has received more than 200

e-mails complaining about the pigeon program. But Riggleman

said most of those e-mails appear to be " form letters " taken from

a Web site run by the People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals, an animal-rights group.

 

 

 

 

 

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