An online message goes viral: “The authorities of the city of Limburg decided to catch and destroy the birds. All because of complaints from residents about houses, streets and monuments stained with droppings.”. However, Germany was one of the first to protect the rights of animals and birds.
Factchecker.uz checked the information, since it contradicts historical facts, since at the end of the 19th century, German animal rights activists were mainly concerned with issues such as kosher slaughter and vivisection. The situation did not change in the twentieth century. On April 21, 1933, almost immediately after coming to power, the Nazis passed laws regarding the slaughter of livestock. In August of the same year, Hermann Goering announced on the radio the end of “the unbearable torture and suffering of animals during experiments”. He threatened to “imprison those who still consider our "little brothers" as inanimate property.”
In the city of Limburg an der Lahn, in western Germany (Hesse), the relationship between pigeons and people has become tense.
The residents voted to decrease the number of pigeons, by 700. The birds that flock to European city centers are descendants of the domesticated type of doves and are therefore unusually calm towards people.
The referendum held on June 9 (the same day as the country's EU elections) after the city council decided to kill the birds in November 2023, sparked controversy.
Der Spiegel reports that 53% of voters who took part in Sunday's referendum approved the slaughtering of pigeons. A total of 7,530 votes were cast in favor.
How will pigeons be killed?
"Today's result was unpredictable. Residents exercised their rights and decided that the animals should be euthanized," Mayor Marius Hahn (SPD) told a German news site.
This was the method originally proposed by the council last year, and the question before voters was whether to uphold the decision.
The birds are supposed to be lured into a trap, stunned by hitting them on the head with a wooden stick and then having their necks wrung.
Animal rights activists were horrified when the plan was announced. “We live in 2023, and it cannot be that we are killing animals just because they annoy us or cause inconvenience. This is unacceptable,” Tanya Müller, head of a pigeon breeding project in Limburg, said in an interview with the British television channel SkyNews last year.
The pigeon termination program will take place over the next two years.
Is killing pigeons an effective way to reduce the population?
A group called Pigeon Action devised an alternative solution, now known as the “Basel model,” in which Basel residents were warned not to feed animals. Dovecotes were also installed so that eggs could be easily removed.
As a result, the pigeon population in Basel has dropped by 50% in four years.
What methods do European cities use to tackle the pigeon problem?
Augsburg (Bavaria) has come up with a similar solution. A local animal welfare organization monitors several pigeon coops to keep numbers under control.
Many other cities in Germany suffer (or enjoy, depending on your point of view) from the cooing of grey birds.
Kaiserslautern is also trying the "Augsburg model" by installing new pigeon towers where the birds are relocated. Pigeon lofts or controlled nesting areas have also been installed in Ludwigshafen, Mainz, Pirmasens and Zweibrücken.
In the UK, as in other countries, birds of prey are used to kill pigeons.
Are bans on feeding pigeons legal?
Other cities have tried to implement feeding bans, but it has proven controversial. In 2021, a government animal protection official in Berlin asked a lawyer and a veterinarian for a legal opinion on feeding pigeons.
They concluded that cities cannot ban the feeding of pigeons. Furthermore, they have an obligation to care for them, since they are the offspring of stray domestic animals, not wild animals.
“Even when there is a shortage of food, urban pigeons lay eggs in large numbers,” the legal opinion says. “Therefore, a feeding ban does not reduce the population, but only to its impoverishment.”
Factchecker.uz verdict: true
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