We used to kill pigeons en masse with poisoned wheat, and that was just part of a responsible organisation's pest control. A decade ago that changed to sedating the pigeons with wheat laced with a sedative so that we could euthanise them humanely, although that's not to say that some don't still use the more direct means of control. Now, in 2010, it seems that we're correcting our attitude to pigeons again, if the concerns of Bondi Vet's Chris Brown and school teacher Claire Thomas are a fair indication.
In an interview in the most recent Herald Weekender magazine vet Brown, a Novocastrian, responds to the news that Merewether Surf House has just been demolished with immediate concern for the hordes of pigeons that lived in the derelict building. There could be, he suggested, an episode of Bondi Vet devoted to the finding of new accommodation for the homeless pigeons.
In a letter in the Herald this week Claire despairs that nothing has been done to rehouse the pigeons, which she has seen waiting forlornly on the site of the old surf house. Claire suggests erecting boxes nearby for the birds.
In my column in the Herald today I describe being accosted by a bird of their feather early this year as I released excess pigeons from my backyard dovecote into the main street of Sydney's Ashfield. When she asked what I was doing I told her that the white pigeons in my backyard in Newcastle had become too many and I'd brought them to Ashfield because I didn't think they could make it home and Sydney could always do with a few more pigeons. And as they flew off she screamed before telling the world, repeatedly, that I was truly truly disgusting.
I am the old generation and I see pigeons, other than those I want in my backyard, as feral pests I tolerate. This nutty woman and Claire at age 29 and Chris at 31 are the new generation, and evidently they believe people have a responsibility to house and even care for pigeons. I don't know how they arrive at that, and I don't know why or whether their reasoning would stop short of including Indian mynas and rodents in this new magnanimity. Their reasoning may be that pigeons rely on urban people therefore urban people have a responsibility to pigeons, although that's a leap I can't follow.
The attitude to animals has been changing over the course of a generation, and I see that as a good thing that has not yet gone far enough. Think battery hens, feed-lot cattle, constrained pigs. But is concern for evicted pigeons too far? Should we require the new surf house development to include flat ledges, exposed external rafters and a multitude of nooks and crannies to accommodate pigeons?
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