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| Sunday, August 06, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal LETTERS: Time for the city to get rid of pigeons
To the editor:
I have been following the pigeon issue (Review-Journal, Aug. 2) and it looks like the city's $56,000 set aside for "pigeon abatement and control program" will be a waste.
I have a suggestion to Mayor Oscar Goodman and city spokesman David Riggleman that may work and save the city lots of money -- as well as cool down the tempers of the animal-rights people.
This is the same situation the city of Los Angeles experienced during the early 1990s. Pigeons were soiling city buildings and numerous and costly efforts had failed to keep the buildings free of feces. A herpetologist suggested that birds normally are afraid of snakes -- and this goes for pigeons.
Experimenting with colorful toy snakes and planting them at specific locations on the building proved the herpetologist's theory. Pigeons stayed away from roosting and nesting in places where the toy snakes where placed. The toy snakes did not cost that much and never angered the animal-rights activists. The city buildings were saved from further soiling and spending money on costly maintenance to preserve the structures.
Although it drove the pigeons away, the battle was just half-won. The pigeons, of course, just relocated to another area and became someone else's problem.
ELMER S. BELMONTE
North Las Vegas
-- To the editor:
The pigeons must be exterminated. If driven from city buildings they will just go to other buildings and homes. And the costs keep mounting until someone pays to have them destroyed. Sorry bird lovers, these are destructive and diseases-carrying animals. Would you complain if these were rats instead of birds?
R. L. HUXTABLE
Las Vegas
-- To the editor:
"Save the pigeons!" "Save the sheep!" In the Aug. 2 Review-Journal, there were stories about pigeon poop at City Hall and some sheep in Vermont that may be infected with mad cow disease.
Mad cow disease is always fatal. In England a group of people are just now being diagnosed, and dying, from meat they consumed 10 years ago.
Certain birds, including pigeons, carry diseases which can be transmitted to humans. Our weather in Las Vegas only adds to the threat. The low humidity dries the droppings and the wind distributes them throughout the valley. Is this just misguided passion for poor, dumb animals? Is it ignorance of the danger these animals pose to humans? Or is it simple, sheer stupidity?
Whatever it is, let's hope common sense will prevail and the pigeons will be removed and destroyed. With the pigeons gone, perhaps these people will turn their attention to more important issues such as the proposed nuclear waste dump. "Save the people!"
CAROL HOGENSON
Las Vegas
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