# We're Poisoning Pigeons... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571 "2006-09-13T17:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/41 "2006-09-15T14:02:25Z")
[QUOTE=slaphead] Huh. The average London pigeon makes rats look sleek, well-groomed and hygenic. Most of them are missing toes and/or complete feet (I think this is due to infected foot abrasions from walking on concrete), they are usually covered in oil and rancid grease from walking under cars and crawling over discarded food refuse, they eat everything from discarded fried chicken to old soggy chips to homeless person faeces and the remains of other pigeons squashed by traffic, and they shit uncontrollably over everything, most particularly pavements and buildings underneath their roosts. [/QUOTE] You’re making my point that they’re only filthy because they’ve chosen to hang out with us. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/42 "2006-09-15T15:05:27Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] You’re making my point that they’re only filthy because they’ve chosen to hang out with us. [/QUOTE] Which is relevant how? Ticks, fleas, rats, bedbugs cockroaches, leeches and tapeworms would perfectly unobjectionable if they didn’t choose to hang out with us. Seagulls, pigeons, racoons, foxes and other critters become vermin when they move into urban environments and breed into huge populations existing on a diet of refuse, doing massive property damage and spreading disease. Ditto for rats, mice and so on. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/43 "2006-09-16T14:40:03Z")
Yeah but a lot of those are actual parasites. And dangerous. Whereas pigeons are…birds. Without them there wouldn’t be much of an avian life in urban areas. And a place without birds is just depressing. So we have to take what we can get. I also think seagulls are glorious birds (to quote Ruth Gordon…or Dreyfus.) ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/44 "2006-09-18T12:22:20Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] Yeah but a lot of those are actual parasites. And dangerous. Whereas pigeons are…birds. Without them there wouldn’t be much of an avian life in urban areas. And a place without birds is just depressing. So we have to take what we can get. I also think seagulls are glorious birds (to quote Ruth Gordon…or Dreyfus.) [/QUOTE] Hmmm… A city without rats, mice, cockroaches and pigeons sounds just fine to me. And trust me, seagulls are a lot less fun once you’ve helped someone clear their guttering of six months worth of seagull-regurgitated plastic, bones, hair, gristle etc. In summer. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571/45 "2006-09-18T18:55:05Z")
I think the AP left out the best part. > [@](#): > > [Texarkana Gazette](http://www.texarkanagazette.com/articles/2006/09/12/local_news/news/news01.txt) > Texarkana Emergency Manager Director Dave Hall said Monday he had verified a downtown business had hired an exterminator to eliminate some pigeons. > > “I think they miscalculated the amount of them,” Hall said. “And I don’t think they thought about the Quadrangle Festival.” > > He said his office received the first call about dead pigeons about 3 p.m. Friday and continued picking them up until about 7 p.m. that evening. > > There were between 20 and 25 sick or dying birds picked up, Hall said. > > “It was fairly obvious from their symptoms they had gotten into some poison” he said. > > Texarkana, Ark., Police also received one call about the birds on Friday afternoon. > > “We picked up two dead pigeons and one that was in distress. The dead ones were on the Arkansas side and then a lady on the Texas side flagged down our animal control officer and she picked one up there,” said Capt. Glenn Greenwell, a spokesman for the police department. > > Texarkana, Ark., Animal Control Officer Connie Perry said the pigeons she picked up were on Broad Street between the Bi-State Justice Building and the CapitalOne Bank building. > > The birds getting sick and dying continued through the weekend. > > Gary Bankston and Chris Flanagan worked the Coldstone Creamery ice cream booth at the Quadrangle and saw the sick pigeons. > > “One (poisoned pigeon) was over here. One of the festival workers just set him down the alley,” Bankston said. > > “I saw the pigeon nose dive the concrete,” Flanagan said. “It just kind of hobbled over and around and sat there and twitched.” > > Another man at the festival, who declined to give his name, said, “They threw a dead one over there in the bushes (along the wall across from the front of the Perot). They’re just flying around here and falling out of the sky.” Who manages that bank? Mr. Carlson? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-poisoning-pigeons/372571.md?page=2)