### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/1 "2006-09-13T17:57:08Z")
…in the park!
[http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/13/dead.pigeons.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/13/dead.pigeons.ap/index.html)
Bolding by me—
> [@](#):
>
> TEXARKANA, Texas (AP) – Poisoned pigeons began nose-diving into pavement and dying on downtown sidewalks, marring the city’s annual festival.
>
> Authorities cleaned up more than 25 sick or dead birds that apparently had eaten poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank branch.
>
> “The death of these pigeons was more than an unfortunate accident,” local CapitalOne Bank President Lacy McMillen said in Tuesday’s online edition of Texarkana Gazette. “It was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds.”
>
> McMillen said the bank hired an exterminator to handle its pigeon problem after a bird entered the bank and defecated on a customer.
>
> The company, which hired Anti-Pest Co. Inc. of Shreveport, Louisiana, said its goal with the treated corn was to sicken pigeons, so they would leave the rooftop. **Death was sometimes an unfortunate side effect, company president Jarrod Horton said.**
SOME SIDE EFFECT!! :eek: :smack:
> [@](#):
>
> All the world seems in tune
> On a spring afternoon,
> When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.
> Every Sunday you’ll see
> My sweetheart and me,
> As we poison the pigeons in the park.
> …
> When they see us coming, the birdies all try an’ hide,
> But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.
---
### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/2 "2006-09-13T18:24:48Z")
If I were in Texarkana, I’d check for mysterious squirrel disappearances in the area.
---
### Author:  [@InappropriateHumor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InappropriateHumor)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/3 "2006-09-13T18:25:50Z")
Okay, I’ll cop to being insensitive. That made me snort.
I’m wearing an evil grin as I type. The pigeon poo encrusted patron, the feathered carcasses dropping from on high…
Bwa ha ha!
Sorry about that.
---
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/4 "2006-09-13T18:34:49Z")
\ The Google Ads, in a thread about Dead Pigeons, are all about…BARBECUE!!
BWA-HA-HA-HAAA!
---
### Author:  [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/5 "2006-09-13T18:46:31Z")
MMMMMM… BBQ’d poisoned tree rat!
---
### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/6 "2006-09-13T20:20:20Z")
It’s not against any religon
To want to get rid of a pigeon
---
### Author:  [@Aunt\_Flow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aunt_Flow)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/7 "2006-09-13T21:55:43Z")
Wait…because some bird accidently got inside and…_gasp_ crapped on a bank patron…they all have to die? That seems insanely twisted and horrible to me \>:(
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### Author:  [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/8 "2006-09-13T22:53:46Z")
So if Sunday you’re free, why don’t you come with me
And we’ll poison the pigeons in the park
And maybe we’ll do in a squirrel or two
While we’re poisoning pigeons in the park…
---
### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/9 "2006-09-13T23:07:19Z")
It’s a glimpse of things to come, when we kill all the birds in North America because of Avian Flu.
You know, I’m pretty big animal lover, and I’m having a hard time getting incensed over killing a disease-carrying vermin species. Rats with wings indeed. I imagine large cities poison pigeons all the time - they’re just not usually so obvious about it.
Reading the OP again, it’s kinda funny that the bank is trying to claim they weren’t trying to kill the birds by hiring an exterminator - um, you do know what EXTERMINATE means, right? They didn’t hire a pigeon relocation expert.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/10 "2006-09-13T23:09:36Z")
I went to a community concert a couple of months ago where that song was performed by a pretty young blonde female in her twenties; I liked her version better than the original; everything about her, vocally and visually, was in perfect tension between pure virginal innocence and insane wickedness - it was really something to watch.
---
### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/11 "2006-09-14T00:03:14Z")
It’s [thread=299721]okay by me[/thread]. Bloody pigeons.
Stranger
---
### Author:  [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/12 "2006-09-14T00:07:29Z")
> [@Rick](#):
>
> It’s not against any religon
> To want to get rid of a pigeon
May I have this embroidered on a throw pillow?
---
### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/13 "2006-09-14T01:15:50Z")
Since Tom Lehrer wrote it, ask him not me. 😃
---
### Author:  [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/14 "2006-09-14T01:34:50Z")
I’m all for poisoning pigeons.
In Piazza San Marco, the pigeon food for purchase is laced with contraceptives.
In Darwin, northern Australia, local authorities pretty much wiped out feral pigeons, the only introduced bird species in the region. They did it beautifully, feeding flocks regularly for a few weeks to gather a big bunch, then one day put out the “special” food. The poison was fast acting, and reversible - if a native species ingested some, they could be scooped up and given an antidote. Did this a few times, and voila, no more pigeons.
---
### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/15 "2006-09-14T03:03:23Z")
I’ve reported this before. The City of Long Beach, California, has (or had at one time) pursuaded a pigeon hawk to nest at the top of City Hall. Didn’t eliminate all the bird poop, but cut down on it quite a bit. The all-natural solution to your excess pigeon issues.
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/16 "2006-09-14T06:40:42Z")
The same thing happened in my hometown (Yuma, AZ) back in 1980. My dad was almost beaned by a falling pigeon.
---
### Author:  [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/17 "2006-09-14T09:58:44Z")
> [@featherlou](#):
>
> Reading the OP again, it’s kinda funny that the bank is trying to claim they weren’t trying to kill the birds by hiring an exterminator - um, you do know what EXTERMINATE means, right? They didn’t hire a pigeon relocation expert.
Should have hired a Dalek.
Spring is here
Spring is here
_EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!_
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/18 "2006-09-14T10:07:47Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#):
>
> Should have hired a Dalek.
> Spring is here
>
> Spring is here
>
> _EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!_
Coffee.
Monitor.
You know the rest.
---
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/19 "2006-09-14T11:10:07Z")
> [@linked article](#):
>
> Poisoned pigeons began nose-diving into pavement and dying on downtown sidewalks, marring the city’s annual festival.
Would that be the Poisoned Pidgeon Festival? Or the Pigeon-Free Pavement Festival? Possibly a Non-Poisoned, Nose-diving Pigeon Festival (complete with pagent, perhaps)? Or (and this one seems a bit remote to me) the Dying, But Not Poisoned, Pigeon Festival?
---
### Author:  [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/20 "2006-09-14T12:53:29Z")
So is there any recorded incident of someone catching something from a “disease carrying” pigeon? Just wondering because my Gramps raised homing pigeons (which mingled with city pigeons when they were out and about) and no one in my entire extended family ever contracted a disease from the birds. And we used to handle them a lot. \*\*And \*\* they used to eat them during the WWII. I think pigeons are suffering from bad PR!
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