Simcha Felder’s proposal lacks scientific data

Brooklyn, New York, USA. (SANEPR.com) November 19, 2007 -- Council Member Felder’s Proposed $1,000 Fine on Pigeon Feeding Based on Severely Flawed Report, Scathing Analysis Reveals


Contact: Lori Barrett
barrettlori@hotmail.com / (347) 405-9584

Contact: Al Streit
al_streit@yahoo.com / (212) 873-6030

Contact: Joanna Tierno
deesnd@aol.com / (718) 980-5631


Council Member Simcha Felder’s proposed $1,000 fine for feeding pigeons is based on a report that severely distorts CDC information about public health risks; misconstrues animal and environmental protection law; and lacks scientific data. A scathing critique (attached) of the Felder Report by Brooklyn attorney Lori Barrett was released Saturday.

On November 12, 2007, Council Member Felder (44th District, Brooklyn) and likely candidate for the 2009 City Comptroller race, released a report entitled Curbing the Pigeon Conundrum, proposing that persons be fined $1,000 for feeding pigeons and the creation of a new taxpayer-funded position called the “Pigeon Czar.” According to Felder’s staff, the proposed law will be introduced before the end of the year.

“What’s so striking about the Felder Report is the would-be comptroller’s shameless distortion of facts published by the Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) and his heavy reliance on secondary and decades-old source material,” said Barrett, an attorney and former president of the NYU School of Law Student Animal Legal Defense Fund.

The Felder Report begins “The uncontrolled pigeon population in New York City poses a threat to public health . . .” Not so according to CDC data. For example, histoplasmosis, one of the diseases cited in Felder’s study, grows in soil not concrete. It is most prevalent in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys and is caused mostly by blackbird droppings. A 2004 study published in the Journal of Microbiology refutes the council member’s claim that salmonella food poisoning is a serious health risk associated with city pigeon droppings, a claim based on a 13-year old U.S. Department of Agriculture pamphlet heavily relied on by Felder.

The Felder Report attributes $1.1 billion in annual nationwide damage to pigeon droppings, based on an un-sourced figure in a 2006 New York Times article. Research has disclosed that the Times’ figure was based on rough estimates in David Pimentel’s book Biological Invasions. To put the figure in context, Pimentel estimated that the cost of damage by pigeons is on par with that of the Asian clam ($1 billion) and exotic fish ($1 billion). Pimentel’s book estimates that weeds cost about $33 billion in damage, rats cost $19 billion in damage, and domesticated and feral cats cost $17 billion. Notably, pigeon-related damage reported to the USDA is much lower than Pimentel’s estimate – only $12.7 million in an eight-year period from FY 1990-1997.

In a November 13 interview on New York Public Radio, Leslie Day, naturalist, teacher, and author of The Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City, opined that “I don’t think it’s a good idea to fine people $1,000 for feeding birds . . . pigeons are such benign animals . . . they don’t attack anybody or hurt anybody.” Day observed that birds enrich the lives of many City-dwellers, noting that City schools are involved in the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology’s Pigeon Watch Program in which children learn about wildlife through observing pigeons.

Barrett’s critique blasts Felder for failing to produce any scientific data on the number of pigeons in New York City and population growth, the relationship between recreational bird feeding and pigeon population, and the overall environmental impact of the proposal. Instead of being motivated by a real threat, Felder’s proposal appears to be prompted by personal hysteria, his 6-year old daughter’s ornithophobia (said Felder on WNYC, “I have a six-year old daughter that’s frightened out of her mind of these pigeons”), and his sense that most New Yorkers are anti-pigeon.

Barrett states, “I think that Council Member Felder is wrong about people’s attitudes about pigeons. I know a lot of people in North Crown Heights, Brooklyn who have either rescued injured pigeons, raised them as kids, or go to Brower Park to feed them. Even if Felder were right, making a decision to reduce a sentient species of animals predominantly on the basis of public sentiment is morally unjustifiable. What’s next, a proposal from a dog-loving politician to stop feeding cats because they cost more in damage than pigeons?”



If you’d like more information about the critique of the Felder report, please contact Lori Barrett at barrettlori@hotmail.com.


Pigeon People
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PijnPeople