Dear Urban Diplomat: what can I do to ward off my neighbour’s pigeon pals?
I have a neighbour who scatters old bread and bird feed on her driveway for pigeons. While these winged rodents await their feeding, they drop bombs all over the sidewalk. Parents walking their kids to school have learned (the messy way) to cross the street. Short of getting out the BB gun and setting up a blind in a nearby tree, what can I do?
—Tired of This Crap, Leslieville
After raccoons and rats, pigeons are Toronto’s vilest scourge. Why we don’t have “Feed a Pigeon, Breed a Rat” signs plastered around town, like New York does, is beyond me. And yet, some people inexplicably enjoy the avian pestilence. As such, it would likely be ineffective (and unkind) to demand that she stop. Instead, ask if she might move her feed station to the backyard—or buy her a budgie for Christmas.
Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com
Pigeons are not a scourge. Pretty soon you will advocate to kill any life form that dares to venture within your fat ass city boundaries. Bees, spiders, wasps, earthworms, they all have to go!
It is not about the city and its citizens. It is about whoever this urban diplomat is and bad advice. Soon urban diplomat is going to get a question from a sweet lady who doesn’t know what to say and do about her neighbour for giving her an unwanted budgie.
These animals get a long quite fine when people don’t actively feed them, We have bylaws that force people to clean up after their dogs why don’t we have bylaws that prevent people from actively doing idiotic things that attract vermin?
Whoever posted this question is clearly uneducated about pigeons, as they are not vermin but the porsche of birds. If they are not on your property there is nothing that you can do. Perhaps you can ask the neighbour to feed the birds in her backyard if she enjoys doing it. There are things that you can do to deter them from coming onto your property if you dislike them that much, holographic balloons, scare owls, bird free gel kits (looks like fire to birds so they won’t land) Everything and everyone deserve to eat. These pigeons are innocent animals that live a very hard life, especially in the winter, the lack of empathy that the poster has for another living being is disgusting.
Personally I don’t have a problem with pigeons or wildlife in the city. I do have a problem with people attracting them in abundance in one area. Wild life it the city would be fine if left alone. It is when they are fed or attracted in a concentrate way to one house or area. I would like for people not to feed any local wildlife. It is cruel should you stop or miss a feeding and can be a mess whether raccoon shit or bird droppings. My neighbor would feed the pigeons in his back yard, hundreds, maybe thousands would come. We all had lane parking and daily our cars would be peppered with bird droppings. Eventually I built a garage. When you think of the excessive car washes and repainting and repair to damaged property caused by the various wildlife being fed in the city, environmentally you don’t win. Again, don’t forget should you miss a feeding it can be cruel.
And I agree to that, I don’t agree qualifying pigeons and squirrels vermin or scourges.
Pigeons (young, pre-flight ones) are edible and delicious. Pigeons are one of the few food birds that can feed themselves with no help from their owner. Two pigeons can produce around 12 squabs per year. With a coop of 10 breeding pairs, you can have pigeon stew for 2 every weekend, without spending a dime on feed. If you’ve ever eaten in a Chinese restaurant, you’ve probably eaten and enjoyed pigeon.
Simple solution to your problem, get rid of your Idiot so called neighbour ! End of story, no more bird droppings on your property and sidewalk etc.. A all around very clean enviroment for everyone concerned ! Right or am I right ! ! !
Oh come on, a city that doesn’t allow us to feed the birds, what a sick city this is. A park is not the same without the pigeons. Next thing they will come up with is that they won’t allow us to help homeless people on the street.
These birds are stuck in the city, they can’t find their way out and it has become their home. They don’t know how to find the forest from all massive construction. Humans are the real problem. They are not hurting you, leave them alone. All wild animals are innocent have very difficult lives, we don’t have to make it worse for them. May you be reborn as a pigeon!
Yeah, lets all kill the fragile ecological balance that keeps us alive!
Lets get rid of you.