LA PALMA : Pigeons Face End of Handouts in Park

After hearing complaints from Central Park neighbors who blamed two out-of-towners for attracting flocks of pigeons to the park, the City Council voted 5 to 0 this week to have the city attorney draft an ordinance prohibiting bird feeding there.

If, as expected, the council adopts the new ordinance at its Aug. 17 meeting, the measure will go into effect Sept. 7, according to city officials.

Carol Heckerman of Cypress and Sharon Cain of Buena Park, who have fed the pigeons daily for four years in spite of recent complaints and police requests, said they would not fight the city’s ordinance.

“I understand and I knew this would be the city’s decision,” said Heckerman, 51, after the council meeting Tuesday night. “But I felt I had to come down here and give my opinion. I’ll miss” the pigeons.

Council members sympathized with residents whose Pembury Drive homes abut the popular park. More than 25 residents signed a petition calling on the council to ban pigeon feeding. Neighbors argued that if the daily feedings were halted, the birds would go elsewhere.

“I think it’s a health problem,” said Councilman Larry A. Herman. “It’s a nuisance problem and I would be very disturbed if I had to live there.”

Neighbors told the council that pigeon droppings dirty cars, driveways and rooftops. The birds frequently ruin back-yard cookouts, they said, and prevent residents from leaving food outside for their pets.

“I am not an animal hater,” Pembury Drive resident Harvey Molendyk told the council. “I am an animal lover. We have our own pets, but we contain them and they aren’t a public nuisance.”

Neighbors were especially incensed that both women lived outside La Palma.

But Heckerman and Cain, who both live less than a mile from the park, maintained they were as entitled as anyone to use the park.

“I’m sorry for this problem, but I don’t see where we can be held responsible for the birds,” said Heckerman, a school bus driver. “It’s a public park. I don’t think we should have to move.”

The two women, who also regularly aid stray cats, said they have spent more than $2,500 to feed the birds over the last four years and that more than 100 pigeons depend on them.

“If there’s still poop after this, then they can’t blame us anymore,” Cain said.