Animal-Friendly Treatment of Urban Pigeons
Feeding bans cannot simply be imposed; instead, there is an obligation to care for the animals. Urban pigeons are not wild animals but neglected domestic animals descended from homing pigeons. Feeding bans therefore do not lead to shrinking populations, but only to increased misery.
Buildings are their cliffs, third-floor ledges their makeshift nests, and hamburger scraps their grain feed. Urban pigeons leave behind droppings and frustration. Yet the rejection is often based on a misunderstanding. “Urban pigeons are escaped domestic pigeons,” says Jens Hübel, a specialist veterinarian for ornamental, zoo, and wild birds.
Those who cannot find their way home end up on the streets
“Animals that cannot find their way home are of no interest to the homing pigeon sport,” explains Hübel. “During the flying season from April to September, 20’000 to 30’000 homing pigeons are lost every weekend.”
Overestimated as disease carriers
“The role of the urban pigeon as a disease carrier is overestimated,” says Hübel. “The risk is no greater than with other animal species such as sparrows, crows, chickens, or cats.”
Animal-appropriate treatment of pigeons
“We need pigeon lofts where the animals deposit the majority of their droppings, with feeding inside the loft and egg exchange,” says Hübel. Berlin managed to reduce the number of pigeons from 150’000 in 1980 to 19’000 in 2022. More on the topics of animal rights and bird protection.
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More on the subject of recreational hunting: What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
