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Man fined for feeding birds (1 Viewer)

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Birdforum Admin received this today. Thought we'd air it.


"My 65 year old pensioner son-in-law has just been issued with a Fixed penalty on the spot fine for feeding the birds in a local village library car park.

George fed the birds at 7.30am on monday morning with a lovely breakfast of Meal Worms, Sun flower Seeds, Sun flower Hearts, Sultana's, Bran, Mixed nut Etc. I have contacted The Daily Mail Newspaper, BBC Television And Radio Sheffield Because George Doesn't think he has commited any offence and is prepared to go to jail rather than pay The £50.00 fine.
Anyone interested in lending their support to this very unjust cause please try to be at Kiveton Park Library by 7.30 am on Monday please."
 
That is outrageous.. Every thing not eaten on the ground will be either eaten later or rot down.

What is the law on feeding of birds in public areas?
What type of birds was he feeding
Did he get a warning first?
Was there notices warning against feeding of birds?
Who issued the penalty?
 
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We didn't receive any more details, so there could be more to it than meets the eye. There's two sides to every story.
 
Andy Bright said:
We didn't receive any more details, so there could be more to it than meets the eye. There's two sides to every story.
Click to expand...

Spot on Andy.

As it is it does sound outrageous, but has the property a no feeding policy that is well known, i.e notices on the wall etc.

Without all the details you can't make any judgement.

You have to realise there are places that have suddenly become infested with Rats due to the feeding (or overfeeding) of birds. This might be the case and if so I can see the need to ban the feeding of the birds.

We might not like it but sadly Rats and feeding birds go together, as many of you who are in the garden birds thread have mentioned.
 
birdforum said:
"My 65 year old pensioner son-in-law..."
Click to expand...

This was sent by someone over 85 years old?

Really need whole story before too much anger is expressed. If he had been repeatedly attracting a thousand pigeons and had been asked to stop many times, then maybe it is not so extreme.
 
willowa said:
That is outrageous. It sound like easy money for the police to me. Every thing not eaten on the ground will be either eaten leter or rot down.
Why do the police pick on pensioners doing no harm to anyone.
Click to expand...

Maybe i've missed it but i don't see any mention of the fact that this fixed penalty notice has been issued by the police. Sounds extremely unlikely to me. Perhaps we ought to get the facts before we start bashing the local constabulary.
 
my Father-in-law was recently "told" to stop feeding birds in his garden because it was attracting rats and his neighbours had informed the Council, as much as he enjoyed having the birds he accepted the rats were a problem for everyone and stopped.

if he didn't stop he would be in the wrong IMO.

sounds to me like one of those stories the press likes to jump on while deliberately withholding some info......
 
Richard W said:
my Father-in-law was recently "told" to stop feeding birds in his garden because it was attracting rats and his neighbours had informed the Council, as much as he enjoyed having the birds he accepted the rats were a problem for everyone and stopped.

if he didn't stop he would be in the wrong IMO.

sounds to me like one of those stories the press likes to jump on while deliberately withholding some info......
Click to expand...

We've, just recently had something similar occur in Doncaster, pensioner feeding his garden birds, but his actions were attracting the odd pigeon. So he had a visit from the council and threatened with a £50 fine, unless he stopped.
Due to press interest, the council withdrew the threat, but refused to apologise to him.
 
Hi Folks,

Sorry bit off thread but rats are attracted by dropped left over food and take-aways too, hope the councils rigorously fine those people too.

Ann
 
Reader said:
Spot on Andy.

As it is it does sound outrageous, but has the property a no feeding policy that is well known, i.e notices on the wall etc.

Without all the details you can't make any judgement.

You have to realise there are places that have suddenly become infested with Rats due to the feeding (or overfeeding) of birds. This might be the case and if so I can see the need to ban the feeding of the birds.

We might not like it but sadly Rats and feeding birds go together, as many of you who are in the garden birds thread have mentioned.
Click to expand...
You make probably the point that matters concerning rats, Reader, although the way folk eat in the street these days and throw their left overs any old place does make it seem unfair. That said, this is presumably a well kept public, if not civic, space.

We had an elderly lady who fed pigeons near our local parish church. This did not please the residents as, over the years, so many pigeons began to turn up that they left a good deal of mess around the place as can be imagined. She fed them an enormous quantity of grain and rats were also not uncommonly seen.

When the woman died, some of the pigeons began to fall ill presumably through lack of food and a strange inability to go elesewhere for it (odd as it seems to me...). In the end, my brother decided to help out and put down food but this caused an uproar with the locals and the council.

I have great sympathy for this poster and a fine seems, on the face of it, rather daft but I suppose I do think that feeding of birds needs to be reasonable and carried out in parks, for example.
 
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I would be lost without our local pigeons in the town centre, they have been there as long as i can remember but in recent years they have come under fire from our local council, who said they are a health risk,etc,etc,etc. The local papers had all sorts of reports including culling as an option. The pigeons in my mind have a job to do, and that is clearing up scraps of food left by us, and they do a very good job of it.

However some people take it to themselves to add to the problem by feeding. and this is not just the odd tit bit here and there, but whole bags of bread just dumped within the town centre or the park. This does lead to problems with rats, so the council has outlawed feeding of the pigeons and some people have already been prosecuted for it. There are other problems associated with the rapidly expanding pigeon population which may of prompted the local council into action, mainly another health risk, droppings.

As you have probably guessed i fall within the two camps, those that like the pigeons and i can see our councils point of view.I do not like to see the birds being hurt and many of the local people felt the same way but culling was only one option. Since then according to our local papers, the council have been working alongside other groups including those dedicated to wildlife in search of a softer option of reducing pigeon numbers over a period of time. It will be interesting to find out what the softer options are.
 
snowdragon said:
It will be interesting to find out what the softer options are.
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My brother is involved with this locally. His view is the softest option is a hard boiled one... to put porcelain eggs in place of the real eggs in the nests. This seems to keep the population down and keep mum happy sitting on her eggs!
 
There is a big problem in St Ives Cornwall. With sea Gulls mugging people. They target children in pushchirs with either ice cream or fish + chips. There are notices all around but poeple still feed them.
 
I have pigeon problem in my biggest barn. I no longer have livestock in there and the pigeons have taken over. I try to shut them out but they always out smart me. I've seen them land and walk in when they couldn't fly in. They seem to be raising at least two broods per year, possibly three. They have made the barn tough to use for storage even, pigeon s**t on everything.
The strange thing is that I've never had one come to my feeders or bird bath although they go to the pond to drink. The feeders are only about 200' or so from the barn.
 
snowyowl said:
I have pigeon problem in my biggest barn. I no longer have livestock in there and the pigeons have taken over. I try to shut them out but they always out smart me. I've seen them land and walk in when they couldn't fly in. They seem to be raising at least two broods per year, possibly three. They have made the barn tough to use for storage even, pigeon s**t on everything.
The strange thing is that I've never had one come to my feeders or bird bath although they go to the pond to drink. The feeders are only about 200' or so from the barn.
Click to expand...

If you put an owl nest box (if it's legal) in there. and you get owls. The pigeons
might leave home.
 
As is usually the case, these problems seem to me to arise from man's actions. As a town centre manager, I know only too well what a nuisance and health hazard feral pigeons are and how difficult it is to stop misguided people feeding them and thereby encouraging them to breed continously.

Sadly some folk simply don't respond to reasoned arguments or to the presentation of facts, leaving local authorities with little option than to resort to santions to discourage inapropriate feeding.

As for controlling the feral pigeon population, best advice from PICAS the charitable body set up to advise on humane ways of controlling unwanted pigeon (and more latterly seagull populations) is usually to - i) stop artifical feeding, as research shows that pigeons regulate their breeding in response to the amount of food available to them and ii) to remove eggs from lofts provided at strategic points.

On the other hand, I've always hankered over having a go at the use of natural predators so if anyone wishes to try a spot of town centre hawking, feel free to drop me a line!


John Fleet
 
willowa said:
If you put an owl nest box (if it's legal) in there. and you get owls. The pigeons
might leave home.
Click to expand...
That would be great but Barn Owls are extremely rare here in fact they are only considered to be Accidental.
 
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