_{Photo Credit: Railway bridge crossing Spott Road © Copyright Jthomas, Creative Commons Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/}

Local campaigners from Animal Welfare Party are calling on East Lothian Council to halt a planned cull of pigeons in Dunbar.

The railway bridge on Spott Road and its resident wild pigeon population is the focus of attention from local people and wildlife groups after East Lothian councillors proposed to cull the pigeons and install anti-roosting bird netting under the bridge.

“The birds certainly shouldn’t be killed” said local resident and AWP Member, Kay Hamilton, Dowager Duchess of Hamilton, “This is ridiculous and all out of proportion. Nor should the council be thinking of installing netting, as we know many birds can become trapped in netting and suffer horribly before dying. Alternative solutions have to be found.”

Vanessa Hudson, Leader of Animal Welfare Party, added: “Plans to kill the birds or install anti bird netting are both completely out of step with the times. It’s 2021 and time for us to accept that we share our spaces with wild animals, including pigeons, and humane solutions should be pursued. It is an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to an animal, and nets cause nesting and visiting birds the most horrific distress and injury before death by hanging, starvation or dehydration. We believe the use of this kind of netting has no place in a civilised society and should be prohibited. In this case, consulting with experts in the field of humane wildlife control to find a tailored solution would not only be the ethical way forwards, it may prove to be the most cost effective for local residents in the long term.”

Last year Animal Welfare Party members and hundreds of local people succeeded in getting Halton Borough Council (Cheshire) to remove lethal bird netting from the Runcorn Bridge over the Mersey Estuary, which had been causing the deaths of numerous birds through strangulation, dehydration and starvation.

Press enquiries to:

awpglasgow@animalwelfareparty.org

Tel: 07846297431

Full press release can be downloaded here.