Hollywood Pigeons to be Put on Birth Control
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07.30.07
We’re not quite sure what to make of this story: According to the BBC, authorities in California are to use birth control drugs to cull the pigeon population in Hollywood. Small amounts of a drug called OvoControl P will be placed in bird food in new rooftop feeders around the city. The drug interferes with egg production, and should therefore keep the population down without the need for poisons or gates that give electric shocks. Apparently this relatively humane approach has won the support of animal rights’ activists, although amazingly the report says nothing about the environmental implications of actively putting this drug into the food chain. We already know that human birth control medicines can have a dire effect on fish, so we’d be a little concerned as to what OvoControl P can do to raptors that may pray on pigeons, or what would happen if the drug got into aquatic systems.
Innolytics, the company that produces the OvoControl P claim that such fears are unfounded. They have an FAQ on their website addressing the environmental impacts of the drug, claiming that once the drug is digested, it is no longer available to another bird, and also that it has very poor water solubility, and degrades safely in soil. Anyone know any more about this? On the one hand we can see the value in reducing feral pigeon populations, and we don’t suppose they can be retrained to monitor pollution like some of their cousins, but do we really need more pharmaceutical chemicals in our environment, and can we be sure it's safe? Wouldn’t it make more sense to first safely and hygienically recycle all the food waste that urban pigeon populations thrive on? Somehow his smacks of treating the symptom, not the disease. ::Innolytics:: via BBC::
The study of "hormone mimics" is a newer area of carcinogenesis research. Some hormone mimics were seen as effective alternatives to old-fashioned pesticides, but if they get into the human food chain, they can screw with the endocrine system, possibly creating opportunites for cancer.
Warner Brothers could create a roost of Harry Potter-branded owls at the top of the Roosevelt Hotel. Owls make fantastic celebrities, because they're clean, photogenic, and rarely drive drunk.
Why don't they just net the pigeons and use them as animal feed or something
Why noit ask the EPA officials who wrote the risk assessment for this chemical, nicarbazin is it's cactive ingredient name.
They are
Shannon Borgess
borges.shannon@epamail.epa.gov
William Eckel
eckel.william@epamail.epa.gov
William Erickson
erickson.william@epamail.epa.gov
There is an EPA fact sheet for nicarbazin, including a mention of risk assessment for goose control.
http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/factsheets/nicarbazin.pdf
In it they say not a problem for adverse effect in wild birds even though it is a reproduction toxicant for geese. They say the reason is that it requires a long time to adversely affect the birds. if that is the case, won't they have to applyit for a long time and if that is the case why are non-target birds not as likely to be exposed as the birds one wants to control. Using it for pigeons would raise even more concerns I should think as they breed almost year round.
Given that washington DC just had a case of pigeon control affecting lots of birds, Closing of a number of Metro stations on Sunday: The story goes that a contractor mistakenly spread commercial-grade rat poisoning in the middle of the day around several stations in D.C. and Maryland. When dozens of birds started dropping dead at the Greenbelt, Anacostia, Naylor Road and Branch Avenue stations on the Green line and the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood and Takoma stations on the Red line, an investigation quickly began that included the FBI and local hazardous-materials crews. All of the affected stations were reopened relatively quickly.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072900528.html it seems pretty hard to argue that lots of birds are not affected.
ok so now that the pigeons are done, its time to put in forced birth control for humans, we are infesting everything!
I would say that the drug would be expelled from the birds system rather quickly and is meant to mimic a natural hormone. Unlike heavy metals there is no magnification effect. No real evidence I can cite for this so anyone with a better knowledge.... feel free to shoot it down in flames
I was checking out Global Grind's blog on Myspace [http://blog.myspace.com/theglobalgrind] and came across the article about pigeons and birth control. That's unreal! Do pigeons really reproduce that often? I guess I haven't really paid NYC pigeons much attention, besides brushing them out of my face on streets. If that goes over well, they should consider controlling pigeon-making in New York too! I heard they carry nasty diseases too...
For clarification, the active ingredient in OvoControl is not a hormone, has no hormonal activity and does not act on any hormonal pathway. The compound acts to physically interfere with the development of the the vitalline layer(s), the membrane seperating yolk and white.
With an acute toxicity value equivalent to table sugar, OvoControl is not a toxicant. The compound is also environmentally benign and does not represent a risk for endocrine disruption.
The active ingredient in OvoControl has been used safely and effectively in the poultry industry for more than 50 years. It is well characterized and studied.
Please see the product website at www.ovocontrol.com for additional technical information and detials.