Glendale Seeks Alternatives to Killing Pigeons : Animals: Birds are a nuisance to downtown businesses. But many citizens react angrily to euthanasia plan.

Two days after voting to stem the city’s burgeoning pigeon population by trapping and killing the birds through methods that include carbon monoxide poisoning, Glendale officials Thursday said they are considering more humane ways to rid the downtown area of the pesky fowl.

City officials said they were deluged with calls from angry residents and animal-rights activists after Tuesday’s unanimous vote to catch and euthanize hundreds of the prolific birds, and now consider euthanasia as “a last resort.”

Instead, they said they are looking at non-lethal ways to curb the population, such as repellents, netting or plastic owls or falcons, which are supposed to scare the birds away.

“There were no alternatives presented to us in the first place because we were contracting with the county and the county said euthanasia was the only way to do it,” said Councilman Larry Zarian.

Tuesday’s vote followed merchant complaints that pigeons had overtaken downtown office buildings and outdoor restaurants, dirtying awnings, ledges and benches and ruining the Civic Center’s appearance. Officials also voiced concern about diseases transmitted via pigeon droppings--notably salmonella and tuberculosis.

Glendale, which would have contracted with Los Angeles County to trap and kill the birds, was the first city in the county to adopt such a sweeping pigeon-eradication measure. Outraged residents and animal-rights groups loudly protested when county officials disclosed that they would kill pigeons through carbon-monoxide poisoning by putting them in a bag and tying it to the tailpipe of a running vehicle.

“There are all kinds of impurities in vehicle exhaust that can burn their eyes and destroy their mucous membranes,” said Leslie Press, a biologist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Washington.

Press said that while the carbon-monoxide poisoning method is inhumane, it’s not uncommon and is used by companies around the nation to control pigeon populations. However, she added, lethal methods do not work because they do not ensure that other pigeons won’t return to roost in the area.

Richard Wightman, the county’s deputy agricultural commissioner, said the carbon-monoxide method “has not been a common practice and it’s not an old practice. We have simply used it several times when we needed an expedient way to get rid of birds.

“We had used carbon monoxide for jobs at smaller buildings, but not on any larger scale like the Glendale job would be,” Wightman said.

He said the county is studying the use of lethal injection to control pigeon populations. The county Department of Animal Control would perform this procedure, which involves injecting each bird with a barbiturate that would put it to sleep in seconds.

Representatives of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Los Angeles said the group does not approve of the carbon-monoxide method but euthanasia by lethal injection is acceptable.

At the Glendale council’s request, the city manager’s office is drafting a report on alternative methods to rid the city’s Civic Center of pigeons.

“Because people have been calling and protesting our decision, we decided to get more information on alternatives to deter the pigeons,” Zarian said.

City Manager David Ramsay said the report will include residents’ ideas on how to control the city’s pigeon population. Residents interested in providing advice to the city can write to City Hall at 613 Broadway. City staff will research each idea for its viability before placing it in the report, Ramsay said.

Across the nation, cities have adopted methods other than euthanasia to control pigeons after residents and animal-rights groups complained about the method, which they termed cruel and unnecessary.

In the early 1970s, San Francisco trapped hundreds of the determined birds, shipped them 100 miles north and let them go, said Carl Friedman, director of the San Francisco Department for Animal Care and Control.

The effort backfired because birds died in holding cages and others were said to have returned to the city, Friedman said.

San Francisco has since enacted laws against trapping, releasing and killing the birds and also prohibits feeding the fowl in any but nine designated areas in the city.

Administrators in New York and Washington have contracted with a Boston firm, BirdMaster, to “bird-proof” theaters, hotels and government buildings.

BirdMaster draped a 30- by 45-foot net, guaranteed to last for the life of the structure, over the facade of the Federal Bureau of Investigation building to prevent pigeons from landing, said the company’s John Pace.

The netting, invisible from a distance, also has been hung on the Lincoln Memorial, the Department of Agriculture and the Justice Department.

San Diego reduced the pigeon population in Balboa Park from 8,000 to 1,000 by spiking pigeon corn feed with a birth-control substance. San Clemente used a similar method to slow population increases in a flock inhabiting the pier.

St. Louis officials installed six loudspeakers in the University City soccer facility to scare away the birds with ultrasonic waves--which are inaudible to people but supposedly annoy birds and drive them away.

But some Glendale officials are leery of how effective some alternatives would be in driving the birds away.

“Some of the suggestions only move birds from one place to another. We need a more permanent solution,” said Mayor Eileen Givens.

* ON THE ISSUE: Should communities attempt to reduce their pigeon populations by killing the birds? B2