Hindi's Pigeons

All of the things that Hindi has done that are incredibly ignorant, I think his plight to stop a pigeon shoot has to go into the imbecile hall of fame. As I pointed out, Hindi wanted to have some type of a prize fight with the owner of the pigeon shoot and the outcome of the prize fight would determine the fate of the pigeon shoot.

Okay, here comes the hypocrisy.... These shark people, hmmm, just a side note, whenever I hear the word "shark" the first thing that comes to mind is politicians and lawyers as well as the lawyer joke: What's ten lawyers chained to the bottom of the sea - A Good Start!!! Apply to Animal Activists - possibly. Back to Animal Activist's favorite trait - hypocrisy. Let's see The shark gang seem to like to quote Gandhi. Well, I wonder what Gandhi would think of the prize fight. Next to these shark people, Forest Gump's IQ goes up at least 20 points.

Just to see how incredibly ignorant and how far left field that these shark people stray, here are some facts about pigeons. Now, before I educate these shark people, I would like to address any one who raises pigeons. This is not to disrespect your desire to raise and train pigeons. There are a lot of people out there who raise carrier, racing, homing and acrobatic pigeons. If anything, people who read this information about pigeons will have a respect for the time, energy and money that goes into the care, feeding and raising of pigeons.

The feral pigeon is the number one urban pest bird. Large numbers exist in every city across the country. Not a native bird, feral pigeons are descendants of domestic homing pigeons brought over from Europe and released here in the 1600s. They were domesticated from the wild rock doves from the sea cliffs of Europe by the Romans over two thousand years ago. Several traits have allowed them to dominate the urban landscape. Because of their history, pigeons are not afraid of people; they roost and nest readily in man made structures and they have a diverse diet. The standard pigeon has a short neck with a small head. Their short legs with the level front and hind toes allow them to perch on branches as well as walk on flat surfaces.

Feral pigeons are responsible for untold millions of dollars of damage each year in urban areas. The uric acid in their feces is highly corrosive. Also, debris from roosting flocks can build up, backing up gutters and drains thus causing damage to roofs and other structures. Extensive damage to air conditioning units and other roof top machinery is commonplace. There are also other economic costs that can be associated from pigeon’s taking up residence such as slip and fall liability and projection of an unclean, dirty company image. Besides physical damage, the bacteria, fungal agents and ectoparasites found in pigeon droppings sometimes represent a health risk.

The general public's affection toward pigeons translates into a serious underestimation of the health risks associated with pigeons. People who would never tolerate a colony of rats living in their attic will turn a blind eye towards pigeons entrenched in the rafters of their roof. Yet, in terms of disease and damage, the two pests are quite similar. In order to better understand how nuisance birds (or rats for that matter) spread disease we need to understand the basics of disease and transmission.

Feral pigeons are a perfect mechanism for spreading disease because they travel great distances, harbor over forty types of parasites and can host internally over sixty types of infectious diseases.

Fortunately, human interaction with most pigeons is minimal, thus drastically reducing any health threat from most pigeons. However a few bird species have successfully adapted to our urban environment. The pigeon has learned to thrive living in our buildings and eating our food. Their adaptation to our communities has brought them into close proximity to humans. This non-native birds have become a major nuisance in our cities and they pose a serious health risk.

The five types of infectious agents listed above can be associated with pigeons in the following ways: the disease lives in the bird and is passed on when the bird defecates; the disease lives in the birds surrounding environment and is spread by the birds lifestyle; the disease lives inside a parasite that the bird harbors. From understanding how the bird harbors diseases we can demonstrate the four ways the diseases are passed by the bird to humans.

The most obvious example is when the diseased bird directly defecates into a human food or water source. In the summer of 93, New York faced a health crisis when several hundred people came down with a mysterious ailment. The illness was traced to sea gull droppings in an old city reservoir. Health inspectors are quick to shut down a food processing plant if nuisance birds are found inside. Besides direct contamination, airborne spores from drying feces in air ducts and vents can settle on exposed food and transfer disease. Several thousand cases of food poisoning (Salmonella) every year are attributed to this disease transmission route.

As bird feces and/or the contaminated soil it rests on, dries or is disturbed, microscopic pieces break off and become airborne. These airborne particles can contain dormant fungi and/or bacteria. When breathed into the lungs, the warm, moist environment of the lung lining provides a breeding ground for the infectious agents. Common symptoms of this type of infection are flu like in nature: coughing, elevated temperature, restricted breathing and general body fatigue, and last roughly two to four days. The vast majority of the time, the bodies defenses will contain the invaders even before minor symptoms appear but in a small percentage of cases, major infection causing long term disability and even death occurs. It is worth noting that there is no known medical cure for internal fungal infections. After the Northridge earthquake, several thousand people came down with flu like respiratory symptoms. The ailment was called Valley Fever and was caused by people breathing in dust and airborne debris filled with histoplasmosis spores and related fungal agents stirred up by the earthquake.

Infection occurs when a worker or resident gets fecal dust or droppings in an open wound or cut. This commonly occurs when handling old rusty, sharp porcupine wire ledge products which are covered with bird feces. The wound site becomes red, puffy and puss-filled. Antibiotics are often needed to cure the infection. In some rare cases, infection of the blood (Septis) or internal infection can also occur causing serious illness or death. Proper attire and care must always be used when cleaning a bird site or installing bird control products. If a cut or injury occurs, thoroughly wash and disinfect the wound and cover with a sterile bandage to minimize risk of infection.

Pest birds harbor ticks, fleas, mites and other ectoparasites. Parasites transfer disease in the following manner. The parasite bites an infected animal and sucks in blood containing the germ. When the bug bites its next victim it passes along the germ to the new victim. This occurs because parasites inject some of their saliva into the host when feeding. Over forty types of parasites live either on the birds, in their nests or in the places they roost. They are responsible for the transmission of several hundred viral and bacterial agents. These diseases include plague, encephalitis, pox and meningitis. Control of these parasites is a crucial phase of the bird control project. Paradoxically, this threat can be aggravated when bird control products are installed. Unless the parasites are exterminated when the birds are excluded from a site, the mites, fleas, ticks etc. will seek a new host, often the human inhabitants. Therefore, a proper bird control project will always include parasite extermination.

I live near a couple of dairies and there are hundreds of pigeons that hang around the dairies. They eat anywhere from 100 to 150 pounds of livestock feed a day, which means the dairyman has to buy more food and thus raises the cost of his milk production. The dairy cattle's water supply has to be refreshed and cleaned daily. The dairyman are constantly knocking the nests down out of the barns in order to stop the fecal damage to the building from the pigeons. The parasites that the pigeons carry can infect and cause sickness in the cattle. Furthermore, these pigeons come and take the baby birds out of the sparrow's nests. Many times while mowing my lawn I have found baby sparrows in the grass most likely dropped by a preying pigeon.

So I think that since Hindi is willing to conduct a prize fight to stop a pigeon shoot, then he should be responsible for gathering up all these pigeons - all across the country - supply them with suitable housing and feed all of them, clean their pens and be financially responsible for them. If Hindi had to care for all these pigeons, he and his shark gang wouldn't have time to surf internet sites, perform drive-by guest book signings and start fights with people. Maybe, just maybe, and it is a big maybe, they might understand really understand animals. Nah.... the key word here is understand and that would be a really big and steep step for the shark gang.

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