Infectious Diseases: Kill Those Pigeons?

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Some cities have wasted tens of thousands of dollars on futile efforts to keep pigeons away from public buildings with electrified grids, netting, dummies of cats or snakes, and supersonic howls. They might as well have put up a sign, "No Pigeons Allowed"—which is said apocryphally to have happened in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square. The most effective columbifuge so far seems to be a gooey chemical trade-named Roost-No-More, which is smeared on the cornices of buildings. It gives the pigeons a mild hotfoot, and they avoid its smell.

At least two cities have declared open war on pigeons and are winning. Cincinnati, where eleven city workers became ill, and one died, after cleaning out pigeon droppings from an abandoned water tower, has started strict enforcement of an anti-feeding ordinance. Fines up to $50 for violators have made the pigeon rara avis there. Authorities in Buffalo are also making a fight to the finish. They employ five fulltime exterminators, who trap pigeons wherever they can and unobtrusively kill them by wringing their necks. The exterminators are also crack marksmen and shoot pigeons downtown in the early morning.

New York City sentimentalists raised such a howl last week that authorities did not know how to get rid of the birds without losing the pigeon-fancier vote. To trap and kill the birds, they would probably need an amendment to the state conservation law. A few do-it-yourselfers were reported baiting the pigeons with corn, then clubbing them to death with baseball bats. A more scientific and humane though admittedly long-range remedy was proposed by an ornithologist: let the city feed the pigeons all they will eat, but have the corn treated with chemicals that will make the birds sterile.