‘Pigeon guy’ not flying coop

North Las Vegas finally might have resolved its pesky pigeon (guy) problem.

The city last month reached a compromise in its long-running feud with Nephi Oliva, better known as "the pigeon guy," over what officials said was an illegal pigeon sanctuary he was operating in an industrial area near Cheyenne Avenue and Commerce Street.

"We're doing everything we can to accommodate a businessman who is a bit outside the norm," Tim Bedwell, a North Las Vegas police spokesman, said Tuesday.

The agreement requires Oliva, 36, to apply for a special use permit to keep operating Nevada Pigeon Control, at 2920 Brookspark Drive. The permit would not, however, allow him to store hundreds of pigeons in a 6-foot-high, 65-foot-long aviary he built in the parking lot.

The city will allow Oliva to keep only a handful of pigeons for "operational use" as lures to help trap other birds.

"All other birds must be euthanized within 72 hours of capture," Oliva said.

That condition is in direct opposition to Oliva's original mission for the business he started more than a year ago. He envisioned a place where pigeons, which many consider vermin, could live out their lives in peace instead of being killed or simply released to create more problems for homeowners and businesses.

"I had to make some choices," Oliva said. "We're still absolutely committed to providing sanctuary to birds. It's just not going to happen right now at that facility."

The business wasn't licensed accurately, didn't comply with neighborhood zoning and posed a threat to public health, city officials said.

Officials also weren't crazy about Oliva's chosen uniform, which included a metallic, star-shaped pin that resembled a law enforcement badge.

"We didn't want it to look like he had authority from us to run around the city looking like a police officer," Bedwell said. "We drew a line in the sand."

Oliva has agreed to redesign the badges.

Meanwhile, he's working to extend his 15 minutes of fame, shopping around a reality show called "Pigeon Police: Las Vegas."

Oliva posted a five-minute "network teaser" of the show on YouTube. It includes staged scenes in which Oliva arrests a man for feeding pigeons and asks an employee to "incarcerate" a pigeon on charges of "public defecation." Oliva also composed a song, "Here Come the Bird Man," for the clip.

He hopes to use any profits from such a show to fund his ultimate dream: a public pigeon park, somewhere other than North Las Vegas.

Both the city and Oliva are relieved that the bad (bird) blood between them is no more, at least for now.

"He's providing a service that the public wants," Bedwell said. "Nobody came to us and said, 'Get rid of the pigeon guy.' It was more, 'Why are you being mean to the pigeon guy?' "

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.