It’s stories like this that keep me from completely giving up on the Mother Country: BBC Hawk Kills Pigeon As Staff Look On.
When the BBC spent tens of thousands of pounds on three Harris Hawks to protect staff from pigeons and gulls at its new £1billion headquarters in London, it promised that no birds would be harmed. However, yesterday it emerged that earlier this year BBC staff watched as one of the birds of prey made a kill outside the entrance of Broadcasting House and refused to return to his keeper.
You see, the hawks had been specially trained only to give the pigeons a good talking to. Bad hawk! Naughty hawk!
Ann Mann, a campaigner from the London pigeon group, said the BBC was wrong to kill pigeons. She said: “It is disingenuous and wrong, the hawks don’t care if the pigeon is killed. The pigeons only real crime is the speed at which they breed.”
I have no idea what the “London pigeon group” is. Wouldn’t that be akin to the “New York City rat group”?
The BBC hired the hawks – Scout, Travis and Rio – last year to create a “no fly zone” around Broadcasting House. The corporation said that pigeons and seagulls posed a “health and hygeine risk” to both staff and the building.
Don’t these people know that getting hit by a bird bomb is supposed to bring good luck?
The birds of prey, which have a wing span of up to three metres, are released early in the morning three times a week to deter pigeons from perching or nesting. The BBC refused to disclose the cost, but hawks used to keep Trafalgar Square pigeon-free have cost up to £60,000 a year.
You know, you could probably arm a bunch of kids with sticks and squirt guns and get them to shoo the pigeons out of Trafalgar Square free. Heck, they’d probably pay for the privilege. Just saying. Speaking of such things, the Mothe insists that Winston Churchill once suggested that gulls might be trained to land on German U-boat periscopes and poop on their lenses.
A spokeswoman for the British Falconers’ Club said: “They are birds of prey and they are designed to kill things. A spokesman for the Hawk Board said: “It would be killed very quickly. It’s quite likely that the one it went for was a bit weak or old and sick.”
So not only did the hawk commit murder, it also violated several anti-discrimination laws. Hate crime!
The RSPCA warned last night that birds of prey should never be used to contain the soaring numbers of feral, urban pigeons. “They should not be used as a mechanism to reduce populations by killing,” said a spokesperson.
I thought the RSPCA was spending all of its time, energy and monies harassing country folk who want to hunt Mr. Fox. And aren’t those people into eco-friendly technology? What could be better than natural methods?
A spokeswoman for the BBC said that as far as the corporation was aware no pigeons had been harmed or killed.
Ah. It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up! Pigeon-gate!!
The Port Stands At Your Elbow 
5 comments
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January 7, 2013 at 7:38 pm
nightfly
They care more about this hawk killing a pigeon than they ever did about the BBC’s more odious predator who spent decades hunting “pigeons” of a different feather. It’s more than a little vexing.
January 7, 2013 at 7:46 pm
Robbo
Oh, come – morals are for the little people, not celebs.
January 7, 2013 at 10:05 pm
rbj
It’s completely natural for a bird of prey to prey upon prey. Aren’t these people Gaia worshippers? Do they hate nature?
Meanwhile:
An official inquiry into failings at the hospital, where between 400 and 1,200 patients died needlessly due to a catalogue of failings and appalling standards of care, is due to be published later this month.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9783818/NHS-chief-executive-faces-calls-to-resign-over-Mid-Staffordshire-report.html
January 8, 2013 at 1:18 am
mothe
Anent the hawk vs pigeon flap: Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
rbj: Now, now. We all know that ‘government health care’ is the very best of all possible cares. Anyway. the dead patients weren’t pigeons, so who cares?
January 8, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Mike F.
And these people are allowed to vote. I stopped chasing squirrels away from my bird feeders the morning I looked out the window to see a hawk on the ground between the feeders with one in its grasp. I now view squirrels as just one more thing to feed to birds.