# Feeding wild pigeons in the city



## DebbyM (Oct 27, 2010)

Hi folks, 
I'm new here and came looking for information because I rescued a mourning dove that must have flown up in front of a car and injured a wing. He/she is doing well, but I don't think it will ever fly again. So I guess I have a new pet even if I hadn't planned on it.

But the reason I joined here is because I was reading an old thread and the discussion touched on feeding wild birds. I can't stress enough how important it is NOT to get wild birds to land on your hands or shoulders in their search for food because you open them up to getting caught and shipped to Pennsylvania for pigeon shoots. Up to 15,000 birds can be killed in a space of three days. Dazed and dehydrated birds are stuffed in boxes, set on the grass and as the lid is opened, the confused birds stumble out and in some cases don't even get off the ground before they are blasted. And if they are injured and stay down, then kids run around catching them and stuffing the poor injured birds in buckets and then garbage cans.

Please do not "tame" wild birds and write your state represtentatives or Pennsylvanias and demand that they end this brutality. Please, for the birds.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Thank you Debbie. We are well aware of the shoots, and have had many colorful discussions on them. You are right, or course. Better to feed the birds and help them out, but since they are living in the wild, then it is better to leave them wild. Much better for their chances of survival.


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## Ivor (May 12, 2008)

This is a very controversial subject, I do feed feral birds, and that is how I found many skinny and starving birds, strings on their feet, and any other illnesses, and they are not tame, I throw the seeds and leave, they don't eat in my hands if I get close enough they fly away, I started doing this because I found many birds in very poor conditions here in SF, not only missing a foot or both feet, but also in a very bad shape, if you see the flocks that I feed they look much better now, I used to see many sick ones, I loss birds and I saved some others, I know is Illegal to feed the birds, some people are going to be an agree and some maybe not, but I said this before here, I'm not here to please anybody, I just do what I feel is right for me.

Ivette


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Thank you Debbie.
Regarding the shoots...I have read that seed is thrown out to hungry pigeons and then a net dropped over them, trapping them.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Charis said:


> Thank you Debbie.
> Regarding the shoots...I have read that seed is thrown out to hungry pigeons and then a net dropped over them, trapping them.


That's true, and that would work whether they were tame or not.


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

Oh, That's disgusting, poor little things! 

I agree that pigeon tameness isn't the issue here; feral pigeons are semi-tame by nature anyway. Also, there wouldn't be so many people who love & understand them, feed them, and try to help them if they weren't tame or semi-tame. Its a catch 22.

The real issue is the law that allows this cruelty to occur.


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## DebbyM (Oct 27, 2010)

I checked the other threads here and couldn't see any mention of this issue, so I thought I'd mention it just in case. And maybe it's good for these kind of issues to be mentioned periodically anyway because there's always the chance that there is a new lurker in the crowd who hadn't heard about this sort of thing.


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