ShareThisVenice is taking steps to rid itself of one of its creepier attractions -- the tens of thousands of pigeons that infest St. Mark's Square. The city decided that whatever delight tourists so-minded took in having pigeons light all over them was outweighed by their voluminous droppings and the damage they were doing to the ornate stonework of the surrounding buildings.The city hopes that fines starting at $80 and rising to $775 will discourage visitors from feeding the pigeons and it has ordered the sellers of pigeon feed to close their stands.St. Mark's follows another famous pigeon-gathering spot, London's Trafalgar Square, in getting rid of the birds. It was a longer haul in London because the British are mushier about these things than the Italians. The London authorities first tried scaring the birds off and then vacuuming up feed on the ground but the pigeons and the tourists stood their grounds. However, after it cost a couple hundred thousand dollars to repair Nelson's Column and other monuments damaged by their droppings the city got serious and last year feeding them was banned altogether.Most American cities have pigeon flocks but nowhere near the size of Venice's and London's and, as a tourist activity, being covered with birds that have been described as flying rats seems to be less appealing here than there. And they talk about crazy Americans.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Regulating the pigeons
Submitted by SHNS on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 16:43
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