On her doorstep, Christine has heaps of pigeon droppings. Feathers are also lying on the ground. “I used to hang my laundry on the balcony, but the pigeons settle there and do their business, plague the lady. We’re invaded!” In Lisle, this village to the west of Périgueux, the pigeons have found their paradise: they have something to peck at the factory next door and something to sleep under the roofs of old buildings. They are up to 400 at the same time, to lodge in the roofs and attics of old houses. And when you know that a pigeon produces up to 12 kilos of droppings per year, inevitably that’s a lot of dirt.
Pigeons make nests everywhere so the village is filled with small cavities where the pigeons breed.
“Look at the droppings, it’s really infamous, points to the first deputy mayor, Bruno Limerat, in one of the small alleys in the city center. The pigeons make nests everywhere so the village is filled with small cavities where the pigeons breed.” These droppings cause odors, dirt, they clog the gutters and can even be a vector of disease. The town hall encourages all the inhabitants to plug the holes, to avoid the intrusions of the pigeons.
Christine has installed fences but the birds still infiltrate her attic. The floor is covered in droppings. “Last time, I even discovered four eggs”, she says. Dozens of residents have signed a petitiontransmitted to the town hall. “There are some people who asked us to regulate the pigeons, and others who don’t want us to do it, so it’s complicated”, explains the first deputy.
– Lise Roos Weil
200 pigeons killed per year during silent administrative beats
The town hall called on a team of wolf cubs, who trained several people in the hunts. Twice a year, thanks to a decree, they organize silent hunts, in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep. They kill around two hundred pigeons a year.. “We do it when it becomes really necessary”, wishes to clarify Bruno Limerat. This method does not please everyone. Some residents have let the town hall know. “There may be another solution than to kill them”, asks Christina.
Other available methods are sterilization and contraception. But for that, you have to succeed in attracting the pigeons to the same place, in a dovecote. The town hall has already carried out tests but the pigeons continue to lodge in the roofs. “I remain convinced that the dovecote will not be effective because the birds already have places to sleep and eat, explains Bruno Limerat. But we are not closed, we will continue to study the possibilities”.