The management of the town hall wants to regulate pigeons. This is definitely needed, they are harmful, they destroy facades and statues, they transmit diseases. But is it necessary for the dovecote located in Vítkov to cost a million from the citizens’ pockets? This item is in the deficit budget. A pigeon house without permanent veterinary supervision and daily cleaning (because this would mean additional financial costs) is a ticking time bomb. Due to the accumulation of feces and the bodies of dead individuals, pigeons become a source of microbes, fungi, parasites and various allergens. Small mites can occur in large numbers near pigeon centers and transmit, for example, pigeon roundworm, tapeworm, lungworms, bumblebees, fleas, lice, pigeon ticks or salmonellosis and others.
The ruling coalition is said to be looking forward to the fact that children will go on excursions to the dovecote. Seriously? Would you put your children at this risk? I certainly don’t. In contrast, one pair of peregrine falcons costs about 15,000 CZK and there is no need to spend additional money. A falcon hunts pigeons, which it feeds on. In Prague, they bought 14 pairs of falcons after consultation with the Czech University of Agriculture and falconers. And their pigeons are decreasing. Predators have in their genes to hunt the prey that is most available to them, and for falcons it is precisely the pigeon. He organizes several of them a day.
According to councilors, it is not possible to land falcons here in Prague 3. But that is not entirely true. In urban centers and dense agglomerations, birds of prey are more and more settling and living happily. The reason is easy access to food. What to pay, we will have expensive pigeon houses. It is said that another one will be built, on the ground floor of an apartment building. What will its inhabitants and hygiene say about it?
