Barcelona civic authorities have come up with an innovative solution to the perceived pigeon menace in the city, and have decided to feed contraceptives to the birds in a bid to control the swelling avian population. The local administration intends to put at least 40 dispensers with contraceptive-laced food all over the city by April 2017, reported Daily Express.
A local council spokesperson said, “We will be using nicarbazin which acts first on the younger birds. It’s predicted there will be a reduction of 20% in the pigeon population n the first year and between 70% and 80% in four or five years.”
There are around 85,000 pigeons in Barcelona, reported The Sun. However, the local administration will undertake the task of counting the pigeons in the city before the operation kicks off. The move has been welcomed by animal rights activists in the country who had vehemently opposed the government’s earlier proposal to cull the birds. The results of the contraceptives programme will be analysed by the end of 2017.
Several European countries have been using contraceptives on birds to contain their population for more than 15 years now. The medicine stops the egg formations process in the birds.
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