They are probably among the most unwanted animals. And now a German citizen has taken a rather drastic decision to limit their presence. Limburg an der Lahn, in the western German state of Hesse, has just voted to exterminate its population of 700 pigeons. On the same day as the European elections, 9 June, a referendum was held after the city council’s decision to kill the birds in November 2023 proved controversial. Just over 53 percent of residents who voted on Sunday approved of killing the pigeons, Der Spiegel reports, with a total of 7,530 votes in favour. The culling is expected to take place over the next two years.
The words of the activists
“Today’s result was unpredictable for us. The citizens exercised their right and decided that the animals should be shrunk by a falconer,” Mayor Marius Hahn (SPD) told the German news site. Animal rights activists were horrified when the plan was announced last year. “We live in 2023, it cannot be that we kill animals just because they annoy us or are a nuisance. This is not acceptable,” Limburg city pigeon project manager Tanya Muller told Sky News.
