Pigeons Spared Wrath Of Oak Park Village Board
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 5, 2012 6:20PM
The Oak Park village board has scrapped, for now, a plan to take care of their pigeon population by euthanizing the birds with carbon monoxide.
The Board had proposed to trap and kill pigeons, starlings and sparrows near the Marion Street viaduct, which has become prime real estate for pigeons. Before Monday's meeting, village trustee John Hedges told the Tribune the birds were "a problem. It's probably a health problem, and it's an appearance problem." Previous attempts to curb the pigeon population with spikes and nets have been largely ineffective. (An aside: we've never thought of the spikes to be effective in the slightest, except to give the pigeons mangled feet and cross looks to pedestrians.)
The village was looking to the Agriculture Department for some guidance, but opponents of the measure argued the measure would lead to a cycle of killing birds only to have new ones replace them. The proposal also sparked debate between those against it and those who consider pigeons "rats with wings."