It's about time! They are dirty, leaving their poop everywhere....especially on the buildings and on the piazza. How can Venice keep all clean when thousands of pigeons immediately re-poop. I hope the vendors don't move to another piazza, thus creating an ongoing problem.
We've had this discussion about the pigeons in Venice here before. I, for one, love them. I simply can't imagine Venice without them. And I do believe the pigeons were there first, so I will continue to honor the fact that they make their home there.
I have been told many times that it a sign of good luck to be pooped on by birds. I am therefore very lucky indeed.
I have mixed emotions about those pigeons. I like them (but I think there are way too many of them), but I also know they are damaging to all those great old buildings.
But what's going to happen to the pigeons when that "350 tons of corn per year" mentioned in the article is taken away? I don't think Venice's small parks have enough alternative food sources for them...are they thinking that the pigeons will realize that the gravy train is gone and fly away to a different city? Or will there be a huge population of starving birds?
I got swarmed by a flock of them when I was eating a panini outside one day. If they get really hungry, it could turn into Hitchcock in Venice.
Originally posted by AnnieNC: But what's going to happen to the pigeons when that "350 tons of corn per year" mentioned in the article is taken away? I don't think Venice's small parks have enough alternative food sources for them...
Fortunately nature takes care of itself, they will flock in other places, go to the fields and in the country around venice and maybe natural selection will also kick in, like foxes and other animals. I don't like pigeons particularly -OK I do, I adopted long ago one of the Cortona square that didn't want to leave my shop, he lived with us for 6 months, we called him Isaiah and was the sweetest smartes and cuddle giver and taker ever- but I don't eve particularly like this way of disposing of nature and the environment.
We have "used " this birds for years, the vendors make money, tourists love them -who doesn't have a "square with pigeons" picture?- all the sudden we don't like them any more so we have to kill-kick-or make them disappear.
Is not like we can decide to buy this kind of bread or grissini instead. It is like we arbitrarily decide where these creatures have to be or even if they have to exist. Then we make a big talk of environment, ecology, and animal protection.
I seem to recall that the pigeons were not indigenous to Venice and were brought in by the Austrians because they were familiar with them at home. Like so many invasive species they have done quite well without natural predators.
The pigeons themselves I quite like. I was troubled by the pain and suffering I saw inflicted upon them by folks grabbing on to them for photos etc. The number of dead pigeons laying about shocked us. I actually got in a shouting match with some woman when I told a child to let go of a pigeon's wing as the bird tried to fly away.
Jerry
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton
I feel that the ban on corn vendors is long overdue, and would go so far as to say that a cull, or a few sparrowhawks, would be a bonus! Not only does the acid in the pigeon guano cause decay of Venice's irreplaceable architecture, there are so many of the vile creatures, existing on free food, that natural selection isn't in operation: I have seen many quite badly deformed and disabled birds who were able to survive due to the lack of predators. Plus I have never understood why a parent would want their child to have disease-ridden birds all over them just for a photo opportunity.
Posts: 85 | Location: UK | Registered: 14 August 2004
My kids love the pigeons. They were probably exposed to more germs from their sandbox friends and the pets of our neighbors than they ever were from the pigeons in Venice and they somehow survived.
The pigeons offer a diversion for kids who don't see the world the same way as the adults dragging them from museum to cathedral to commercial outlets to strange-hour meals.
My wife and I could enjoy a glass of wine and a cold beer alone while the kids were off making the vendors rich and pigeons fat....there are many things I'd love to see different about the main tourist areas of Italy, but the pigeons aren't on my list of things to worry about.
Posts: 496 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: 22 May 2006
Originally posted by Alpinista: ...there are many things I'd love to see different about the main tourist areas of Italy, but the pigeons aren't on my list of things to worry about.
It's really more about how their droppings contribute to the decay of the architecture. I.E., a lot.
Maybe we could have the vendors sell electonic pigeons. Would that work?
The article includes a term I'd never heard before: Biobigotry, which the article says is, "the dislike we direct toward creatures that live outdoors and generally mind their own business, but that behave in ways we find rude, irritating, selfish or contemptible. The squirrels are gluttons, the crows are schoolyard bullies..."
The reporter, Natalie Angier (one of my favorites) also mentions that animal conservationists are always on the lookout for the next Animal Idol, which is "an ecologically important creature that also happens to be large, showy, charismatic and likable." Animal Idols wind up on the fund-raising calendars!
Maybe we could have the vendors sell electonic pigeons. Would that work?
That might work.
Also maybe something like a McPigeons where the kids could go inside and purchase both the corn and an allotted amount of time inside a room with painted backdrops to resemble St Marks for the photo op.
Posts: 496 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: 22 May 2006
This is a hard one for me as I have fond memories of feeding the pigeons while there in the 60’s, every weekend for months. While I understand the need not to have so many birds and such I’m sure banning the vender's will lower the number of birds; why not ban the clowns with the flowers also?
While there in 2005 Karen & I just wanted to dance to the evening music but had pushy vender's shoving flowers in our face.
This will a hot topic for a while but all things change; some for the better & some for the worse. Ah, the memories.
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Posts: 64 | Location: Dallas Texas area | Registered: 04 January 2007
There will always be pigeons in the Piazza, of this I have no doubt. If we can just reduce the 45-to-1 ratio of pigeons to people, I think everyone will be happy.
And after that, the non-stop guys with day-old flowers, and then the the bancarelli along the Riva degli Schiavoni. I am dreaming now...
I have been in Piazza San Marco at sunrise. Before the pigeons leave their roosts. The entire roof line, all the lintels, every single inch of flat space over 6 feet off the ground is crowded with pigeons. Every one of them sitting and pooping.
Where Venice has failed is in getting the guano off the buildings they should have sold it. Dried guano is an incredibly rich and expensive fertilizer!!
Everyone talks about the germ ridden pigeons but the interspecies barrier makes it extremely unlikely that a human could ever get anything but possibly an infection if they had an open wound.
If Venetians think there is an outcry now wait until the birds start starving. This is spring, the nests are built, moms are hatching the eggs, ain't nobody leaving for at least 5-6 weeks. In that time you are going to get a boat load of dead birds. Not a pretty picture.
Pigeons are animals, and in spite of what many people think, they are smarter than us. They will find other places to go eat. They'll move along. We think they are depending on us, but they are just doing what they are supposed to do, using the resources that are available, once they are not available anymore they are programmed to fine more, and others.
SharonZ, thanks for that update...very interesting. I wonder if the activists could start feeding them in the public gardens and get them out of the Piazza?
Blech, I find them disgusting. There is a woman here we call the bird lady because she actually lures the pigeons from the hillside park into the piazza by dragging a sack of grain and feeding them along the way! Then they swoop all over the tables and fight underneath them trying to get crumbs from cornetti and such, leaving their feathers and poop all over the place. It's not that I dislike natural creatures, I love birds. We had feeders in our yard in NM. But pigeons in such large numbers are a health issue and, as mentioned above, have a severe impact on fragile architecture. My former landlord says that there are so many more pigeons now than 40 years ago, because back then people used to routinely trap and eat them! Now their numbers are out of control.
as I have fond memories of feeding the pigeons while there in the 60’s, every weekend for months. While I understand the need not to have so many birds and such I’m sure banning the vender's will lower the number of birds; why not ban the clowns with the flowers also? 
