A hawk deployed by a Labour-run council to stop a plague of pigeons in a city’s marketplace has failed after locals gave the unwanted birds ‘industrial amounts of feed’.
Norwich City Council splashed out £4,000 on the bird of prey to rid the pigeons from its ‘magical medieval market’, after complaints from food stall traders that they were terrorising and swooping on shoppers.
Falconer Mikael ChuFoon, from pest controller NBC Environment, heralded the seemingly instant success of the project in November, boasting that hundreds of pigeons had scarpered when they saw the Harris hawk.
But the council’s operation sparked an angry backlash, and a petition to house the birds in a nearby park was signed by more than 2,000 people.
Other locals rallied around the pigeons and came out in freezing weather to feed them, with some saying they were ‘undervalued members of society’.
Now, the council has had to put its pigeon purge on hold following a four-week pilot.
Cabinet member Carli Harper, who had considered bringing in fixed penalty notices to stop people from feeding pigeons, blamed the failure on some locals dishing out ‘industrial amounts of bird feed’.
A photo, exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail, shows a long trail of feed piled behind the Memorial Gardens, behind where the stalls are located.
Cllr Harper told the Mail: ‘Unfortunately, a handful of individuals have fed the pigeons using industrial amounts or sack loads of bird feed.
‘As a result, we have now paused the programme to assess our enforcement options to prevent this occurring again.’
She added: ‘We introduced our hawk pilot scheme to deter pigeons from the market following complaints by traders and shoppers that they are causing a nuisance and a health hazard.
‘This trial is part of our wider plans to improve our much-loved medieval market and make it among the best in Europe. It’s not anti-pigeon but pro-market.’
Falconer Adrian Diamond, of NBC Environment, told the Norwich Evening News last month he had ‘seen people bringing rucksacks full of seeds to feed the 500 or 600-strong flock of pigeons’.
University student Summer Loh, 19, came out in support of the pigeons and said they were ‘innocent lives that deserve to be treated with respect and compassion’.
She started a petition calling for an abandoned public toilet in a nearby park to be made into a dovecote and rehabilitation office for the pigeons, which she described as a ‘win-win for all members of the community’.
Miss Loh told the Mail the council’s decision to pause the scheme was a ‘step in the right direction’.
‘It has been proven time and time again that using birds of prey is ineffective in scaring off local pigeon populations,’ she said.
‘Pausing the scheme is a good opportunity for the council to properly reconsider what actions to take next.
‘Ideally, the next step would be for the council to allow members of the public to be involved in discussions about how to deal with the local pigeon population. There are many individuals and a few groups that have been advocating for a more ethical and effective approach, which is what my petition is about.’
She accused the council of trying to portray pigeon supporters as ‘villainous and more sinister than reality’ by saying people had been laying ‘industrial amounts of feed’.
‘What is really happening is people displaying empathy and caring for creatures that are just trying to survive,’ she said.
‘They rely heavily on humans for food because they lack natural food sources in our cities, which makes them unable to forage for their own food. The least we can do is provide these little creatures with a good, healthy source of food.
‘These so-called “industrial amounts” of feed are just about enough for the pigeons to survive. I have encountered a number of pigeons that are underweight, even with the amount of food they get, despite it being perceived by some as too much food.
‘No food is ever left over whenever someone stops by to feed the pigeons, as they always happily eat it all up.’
Cllr Harper had started the project following thousands of complaints about the pigeons, which have blighted the 40 food stalls for years.
Rob Butcher, owner of Ron’s Fish and Chips, said shoppers were ‘ducking and screaming all the time because they [the pigeons] are flying directly at them’.
‘They [the pigeons] fly low under the canopies when people are buying and eating food,’ he told the BBC.
Fellow trader Hugo Malik, of Churros for the People, called the birds ‘a really bold strain of pigeon’.
He said: ‘They start walking into the stalls, they get under people’s feet and it is something continually raised with the council.’
Mr ChuFoon said in November he would be ‘encouraging nature to work with nature’ rather than lethal control.
‘Our birds are bred and trained at our facility in Norfolk. We train them not to hunt, but to deter,’ he said.
In her petition, Miss Loh suggested the centre could be run by a voluntary organisation, and that it would provide ‘proper food’ and nutrients for the birds, rather than the scraps they feed off at the market.
‘Pigeons are heavily reliant on humans for survival due to their history as domestic birds,’ the petition stated.
‘Common pigeons that are found nowadays are descendants of rock doves that were domesticated centuries ago, and retain the traits of their ancestors.
‘There have been many instances of pigeons helping to carry messages during World War I and II and saving lives. These intelligent birds have been very important in human history!’
