Page 4
HOTELS USE HAWKS TO SCARE PIGEONS AND TOURISTS
On September 1, 2011, my wife and I stayed at the Best Western Hotel, Castillo Del Sol, 205 South Atlantic Avenue, Ormond Beach, FL 32176, which is right on the beach in Ormond Beach.
After taking a walk on the beach we returned to the hotel at twilight – the time when pigeons are looking for a place to sleep for the night. As we walked up the stairs from the beach to the hotel’s outside swimming pool area, we encountered a man with a protective cover on his left arm holding full-grown hawk. We were perhaps four or five feet away from him and the hawk and were feeling very uncomfortable.
This man was sending the hawk to balconies of the hotel’s seven floors – some with guests in them – and then blowing a whistle which brought the hawk back to his covered arm.
The man told us he was hired by the hotel to scare away pigeons. I asked him if any pigeons on the hotel premises were killed by his hawk – he replied yes, several were killed by his hawk.
We were appalled! A hotel brings in a wild predatory creature where there are children, adults, and animals such as dogs? Hawks can take off a person’s scalp if it lands on your head.
Obviously the hawk is killing hotel pigeons; why not attack guests or other creatures? Hawks can carry away small animals and could potentially mutilate babies as they have very powerful talons and beaks.
A sensitive child and/or adult could be traumatized if he/she witnessed a hawk butchering a pigeon! This occurs in nature but should not be under deliberate human direction.
Here are two gruesome examples of hawk attacks on a small child and a dog –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230417/Boy-mauled-pet-hawk-Toddler-2-nearly-blinded--birds-owner-says-didnt-mean-harm.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/06/jack-russell-ollie-euthanised-hawk-tongue-_n_2081281.html?ncid=GEP
We have spoken to the hotel Manager, Joe Maniscalco. He told us he did not know that the hawk was killing pigeons. He told us he would stop the hawk practice and we felt he regretted ever starting it as we explained the potential deaths, injuries and liabilities. He also said he would inform other hotels in the area through their hotel association not to use hawks. We have received a report in July 2012 that no hotel in Volusia County (Daytona Beach, Florida area) is using hawks any longer. Joe welcomed non-lethal suggestions from us including using plastic spikes on the tops of all room air conditioners.
During the last 10 months since the episode we have left Florida and have sent Joe Maniscalco, Manager of the Ormond Beach Best Western, numerous materials on different occasions and suggestions that have been proven to be effective in controlling pigeons humanely.
Not only is paying for birds of prey to scare off pigeons expensive, it is not effective. Vacationers at hotels who are traumatized by hawks attacking pigeons, landing on their hotel balconies, flying around hotel grounds or over the swimming pool and scaring them can sue, even in Small Claims Court, for a ruined vacation.
We successfully sued another very large USA hotel chain for a ruined vacation concerning an animal in Small Claims Court for over $5000 and gave the money to animal organizations. Many times suing is the only way to get attention.
There are proven, kind, non-lethal methods to control pigeons. Below are websites that work:
http://www.duivenoverlast.nl/pigeonloft.htm
http://www.picasuk.com/artificial_breeding_facilities.html
Birth control food for pigeons will dramatically reduce future populations – see web site below.
http://ovocontrol.com/ovocontrol-p/
Loft-based systems provide control of pigeons on a specific site or building.
Dove cote-based systems are normally provided as part of a citywide control system and in conjunction with designated feeding areas.
The non-lethal humane and only decent methods, in our view, to control a pigeon problem have been outlined by the above websites.
In a letter to us dated May 24, 2012 from Colonel Jim Brown, Director of Law Enforcement and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, in response to our offering the same non-lethal websites above, Col Brown said:
“We appreciate your input on other ways to deter nuisance, non-migratory birds. The methods presented by you, as the method of raptor abatement, are all legal means approved by Federal and State law. It is up to the hotel’s judgment to choose which method they prefer to use in areas where nuisance, non-migratory birds become and/or pose human health and safety concerns.”
One has to ask – why doesn’t everyone choose the non-lethal methods? Maybe it is because it takes a little more effort. In order to be a compassionate society we need to alter our propensity to seek the easy way out which all too often is violent.
Although using Harris Hawks is legal – so says US Fish & Wildlife Services – it is wrong, cruel, dangerous and repugnant to the public. The US Fish & Wildlife Service is under attack from all directions for many of their violent indiscriminate killing of animals instead of non-lethal methods. There are calls to eliminate the agency altogether.
Starting April 29, 2012, Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee newspaper in California began a three-part series on the Wildlife Services. See: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/28/4450678/the-killing-agency-wildlife-services.html. He does a superb job of covering the agency. Things are changing and the public’s trust of this very non-transparent agency is rapidly eroding.
Businesses and industries that do not conform to a non-lethal approach to living with animals will find themselves to be outcasts. Ask Lowe’s Home Improvement – a target of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) – that refuses to stop selling glue traps when other more compassionate large stores such as Safeway have.
Every time we have contacted Lowe’s Headquarters about their horribly-maintained ceiling nets at their stores that leave small birds dead on the nets – we have been ignored. Costco Headquarters ignored us on the same issue.
Ignoring has become a way of life but it has severe societal and financial repercussions – especially trust. My PhD is in International Finance and Economics. Businesses that choose to use hawks to chase away pigeons face public relations nightmares – plus many legal ramifications.
Pigeon Control Advisory Service (PiCAS) of the UK gives Public Relations disaster examples such as the one in the famous Trafalgar Square in London: http://www.picasuk.com/lethal_bird_control.html
Following is a quote from PiCAS:
“…the use of raptors in Trafalgar Square was condemned outright by the public as a complete waste of taxpayer money and an appalling spectacle for London’s visiting tourists. Pigeons were, and still are by all accounts, regularly ripped to pieces by Harris Hawks in front of a stunned audience of visitors to the capital and Londoners who live and work in the city.”
Another example was in the UK city of Norwich:
“In this case lunchtime shoppers were horrified and disgusted to see a bird of prey being used as part of a pest control operation in Norwich. The bird of prey was seen tearing a pigeon apart and then eating it alive in the city centre. The pigeon was apparently alive for 10-15 minutes as the hawk consumed it.”
Dr. Thor Nielsen
Dr. Dulcimer Nielsen
PS Feel free to share this information with anyone anywhere!