Poisoned pigeons mar Texas festival

Posted by Luke Gilman

September 15, 2006

This article couldn’t be any funnier if it tried. From the Associated Press of all places - Poisoned pigeons mar Texas festival -

TEXARKANA — The city’s annual festival was marred by dead pigeons nose-diving into pavement and others dying on downtown sidewalks after they ate poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank branch.

Authorities said they cleaned up more than 25 sick or dead birds following miscalculated pest control efforts at a CapitalOne Bank branch.

“The death of these pigeons was more than an unfortunate accident,” city president for CapitalOne Bank Lacy McMillen said in today’s online edition of Texarkana Gazette. “It was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds.”

McMillen said the bank hired an exterminator to handle its pigeon problem after a bird entered the bank and defecated on a customer.

The Shreveport, La., company hired to do it, Anti-Pest Co. Inc., said the aim of the treated corn was to sicken pigeons and divert them from the rooftop but that death was sometimes an “unfortunate side effect.”

Vera Martin, working at a handbag booth at the city’s weekend Quadrangle Festival, said the poisoning sends a bad message to children.

“I think it’s cruelty to animals,” she said. “What other animals could be killed in the process of doing this?”

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