Exhausted by its pigeon population, the German town of Limburg an der Lahn decided to resort to lethal measures. Animal rights activists consider this plan to involve a falconer to kill the birds unacceptable.
A love-hate relationship with pigeons
Pigeons are undoubtedly one of the least loved animal species among those that Man has attracted to his side. These birds which populate European places are descended from doves domesticated 10,000 years ago, which explains their relative proximity to humans.
But the feeling is not mutual. These gregarious birds tend to arouse irritation and disgust in people, even if some, more benevolent, do not hesitate to share their crumbs with them. In Limburg an der Lahn, in western Germany, the human-pigeon relationship took a more radical turn.
A referendum to eliminate 700 pigeons
The city has just voted in favor of the extermination of its 700 pigeons. A local referendum was organized on June 9, the day of the European elections, after the municipal council's decision to cull the birds in November 2023 caused controversy.
According to Der Spiegel, just over 53% of residents who spoke on Sunday approved the elimination of pigeons, with a total of 7,530 “yes”. The method chosen is the one initially proposed by the municipal council: a falconer will lure the birds into a trap, knock them out with a blow to the head, then break their neck. The operation is to take place over two years.
A cruel and ineffective method?
Animal rights activists are horrified. “It’s 2023, we can’t kill animals just because they annoy or disturb us. This is unacceptable,” says Tanya Muller, head of the Limburg Pigeons project, quoted by Sky News.
In addition to its cruelty, mass culling would not really be effective, with the remaining birds breeding to replenish the population. Some studies even show that numbers can increase after such an operation! This is what happened in Basel, Switzerland, where despite the elimination of 100,000 pigeons per year between 1961 and 1985, the population remained stable at around 20,000 individuals.
The “Basel model”, a non-lethal alternative
A group called Pigeon Action found another solution, now known as the “Basel model”: citizens were discouraged from feeding the pigeons and dovecotes installed so they could easily remove the eggs. As a result, the population fell by 50% in four years.
Other German cities such as Augsburg, Kaiserslautern and Mainz are experimenting with variations of this model, with controlled dovecotes. In the United Kingdom, birds of prey are sometimes used to hunt pigeons, but the carcasses then replace the droppings…
The question of banning feeding remains controversial. In Berlin, a legal opinion concluded that cities could not prohibit it and even had an obligation to take care of pigeons, considered to be descendants of an abandoned domestic species. Fed on chips and bread crumbs, the hungry birds still lay eggs en masse and slowly die of starvation.
The debate on the management of urban pigeons is far from over. But the use of non-lethal methods, respectful of animal welfare, seems the preferred route. Because even the least loved species deserve our consideration.
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