Pigeongate

[Papa_Complex]

Stop little old ladies NOW!

The Fixer: Law student cries fowl over pigeon-feeding ring


By Jack Lakey The Fixer
Related


Victims of pigeon bombings at the St. Clair W. TTC station can blame a “syndicate” of women who feed them on a daily basis.

Jonathan Schachter is fed up with the pigeons and their droppings outside the station’s Heath St. doors, and knows who is scattering the bird seed that attracts them.

After our column last week about pigeon poop on the sidewalk and just about everything else near the entrance, Schachter emailed us with details about the feeding regimen.

“It is a highly organized syndicate of five women who spread the seed while it’s dark because they are aware it is illegal,” said Schachter, 27, a law student at the University of Toronto.

“They all live in the area, (and) at least one of the ladies openly disobeys the signs and insists on laying seed near the road.”

The TTC has posted signs asking people not to feed birds. If they are caught spreading seed on TTC property, they could be fined $235. But it has no jurisdiction on the road, sidewalk or a parkette behind the entrance.

Like us, Schachter contacted various city departments to ask if any bylaws can be enforced to make the feeders desist. Only the parks department has a bylaw prohibiting feeding.

The bylaw says “no person shall ... feed or attempt to feed or deposit food for consumption by wildlife,” but one of its enforcement officers would have to catch them scattering seed in the parkette.

We asked how Schachter, who lives in the area, knows there’s a ring of pigeon feeders; he says he talked to one of them while she was scattering seed, who ‘fessed up and provided details.

He said his sister first saw a woman emerge from a nearby building at 6 a.m. one day, pushing a trolley filled with bird seed that she scattered around the Heath St. entrance, including the sidewalk.

A short time later, he saw a woman doing the same thing late at night and struck up a conversation with her.

“She said it’s winter, the birds don’t get any food and they need to be fed,” he recalled. “So I asked her why she does it late at night. She told me she knows it’s illegal.

“She said there are five of them, who all live in buildings around there. She indicated it is mostly one lady who just doesn’t care about the rules, and the rest of them help out.

“After I left she took her trolley over by the trees in the parkette and spread tonnes of it. I see lots of seed every day. There are no exceptions.”

No wonder so many people are splattered by pigeons perching on the wires above the sidewalk.