01/06/2007

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Pigeons hang out in West Harris Street near the intersection with Noth Mitchell Street in Cadillac, looking for food. The birds have become a problem in downtown Cadillac, especially on the Old City Hall on North Mitchell Street in the city's downtown. The city is beginning a program to reduce the numbers of the birds.

Officials peck away at pesky pigeon problem

By PATRICK SULLIVAN

psullivan@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
A pigeon takes flight off of the Old City Hall in Cadillac.

CADILLAC — City officials hope poison will purge a pigeon plague.

Cadillac is besieged by hundreds of feral pigeons, prompting complaints from residents and business owners, said Precia Garland, assistant city manager.

In response, the city and the Downtown Development Authority launched an $800 program to poison most of the birds with an avian toxicant called DRC-1339. The toxicant is mixed with whole kernel corn to entice the pigeons.

The object isn't so much to get rid of the pigeons as it is to get rid of what the pigeons leave behind on sidewalks, awnings, window ledges and the occasional unlucky passer-by.

"They tend to roost on some of our taller buildings downtown and the buildings that are most architecturally interesting are the buildings they seem to roost on the most,” Garland said.

That would be the Old City Hall and the Elks building. Garland said residents complain too much bird feces accumulated at both of those locations and around the city over the past year.

Garland gets no argument from Walter Hayward, the local Elks Club's exalted ruler.

"It creates a real mess,” Hayward said. "We've got a water outlet on the front of the building where they can wash it off, but it's still a real mess.”

Hayward said pigeon mess has always been a problem but it's become increasingly troubling in the past year.

"They've been there on and off for years,” he said. "I guess the last eight or nine months it seems like they've gotten a whole lot worse and why that is I don't know.”

Jack Lapinski, president of the Michigan Audubon Society, said he was not aware of his organization ever having taken a stand against pigeon elimination.

"It happens very frequently,” Lapinski said. "To my knowledge, we have never really put out a position one way or another.”

Garland said the birds had been baited with corn for around two weeks and the poison was applied to the corn Thursday through a program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Pete Butchko, state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture unit, said the poison takes a while to metabolize and then causes kidney failure in the bird. He said a USDA employee did not find any dead birds in Cadillac Friday morning but that the project went smoothly and he would expect birds to turn up dead soon.

Garland said city staff estimated the pigeon population to be around 200 to 300 birds. They hoped the project would eliminate 70 to 80 percent of them.