To deal with pigeon overpopulation, city has been trapping and disposing of them 'humanely'

The city of Albuquerque pays more than $45,000 a year to clean pigeon droppings off of buildings and streets, but decided that spending $4,500 to trap them and snap their necks was the better option.

Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn was unaware. In early November, while working in an office she chose specifically because it provided good views of the pigeons, she noticed an abnormal number of them and learned there were more in cages on the roof of City Hall.

“We’re, like, why would we be trapping pigeons?” she said. “Are we doing some sort of scientific thing, are we banding them, what are we doing? I’ve been asking that question since Nov. 8, and I still haven’t gotten any answers.”

An answer came during Monday’s City Council meeting, when the city’s General Services Department Director Nathan Martinez said the traps were atop City Hall to comply with Ordinance 11-37, a law that defines pigeon nuisance “as an excessive congregation of pigeons; making it a civil violation to feed pigeons, prohibiting harborage and the allowance of pigeon waste to accumulate.”

The law, which went into effect June 24, 2011, was intended to mitigate the amount of pigeon droppings around the city and curb the rapidly increasing pigeon population. Three other city buildings — Albuquerque Police Department, APD’s Real-time Crime Center and Plaza del Sol — had pigeon traps on the roofs.

Martinez said while he was unsure of what happened to the pigeons Fiebelkorn referred to, the pigeons caught in cages were “disposed of humanely.”

To remove the pigeons, the General Services Department has been working through American Veteran Pest Solutions (AVPS), which provides pigeon trapping services twice a week from September to December, according to an invoice between the city and the company. The cost for services to date was $4,500.

According to Dan Mayfield, public information officer for the city’s Department of Municipal Development, the company “(takes) the pigeons away and break their necks like a mouse in a mouse trap.”

Mayfield said the pigeons cause a disturbance to buildings, and their droppings pose a health hazard to humans.

“What happens is the dust from the pigeon droppings, people can breathe in the dust, and then you end up with a fungal infection in your lungs,” he said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to maintain a safe work environment, too, and always looking for new ways to keep it safe and also clean.”

Still, said Fiebelkorn, “I find it really appalling that this is something that we have to spend time on. But we can’t just have city employees or city contractors killing wildlife right on our property, not only just killing them but luring them onto our property, trapping them and then killing them. That’s just not OK.”

Not as a result of Fiebelkorn’s questioning, but the contract with AVPS ended Nov. 14. Mayfield said the city pays roughly $45,000 a year on cleaning pigeon droppings.

The city, in the meantime, will have to search for other solutions to the pigeon problem. Currently, the city uses lasers that disturb the pigeons and make them fly away, but the lasers do not work at night, forcing the city to look for a long-term resolution.