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Kota Kinabalu: City Hall has decided to capture pigeons that are increasing in number at certain spots in the city and release them in rural areas.

City Environmental Health Department (JKPB) Director Walter Kenson said public feeding has a lot to do with the overpopulation. The birds are relying on food from humans and this attracts the rest of the colony to the same spot.

Walter said they would use nets to catch the pigeons. “The captured birds will be kept in cages and transferred to a village or forest area far from the city centre.

“By releasing them away from the city, we are hoping they will then join the colonies in those areas and hence reduce the population in the city,” he said.

“We want to create a green city with natural environment, but the increasing number of pigeons particularly in the city has now become a safety concern as well as cleanliness issue. “Frequent road users in the traffic light junction under a flyover in Tg Aru complained saying that their visibility was reduced when those birds suddenly fly over them, some of them had to apply the emergency brake to avoid hitting the birds.

“I have nothing against those feeders, there is no ordinance to stop anyone from feeding but feed in a proper location such as open public area, public parks which don’t cause any safety or cleanliness issues,” he said, during the first operation at the Tg Aru flyover, Friday.

The programme was also a control measure to curb bird droppings in the city centre which would cover 12 areas within the city for a month.

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Walter who is also the city landscape architect said birds are an integral part of urban ecology that give importance to the balance of flora and fauna.

“However, it becomes a nuisance and a threat when it could spread infectious diseases especially when there is overpopulation of birds in the city.

“Among issues that can be associated with birds include bird flu, dirt caused by bird stools, Salmonella bacterial infections through bird stools and itching due to bird lice bites,” he said.

More than 10 birds were caught during the first operation on Friday, there were no birds hurt during the process.

Upon arriving at the release area, all birds caught were tagged to detect if any of the birds would fly back to Tg Aru. Also present during the release were the founder of Helping Animals Rescue Team (HEART), Dr Roslee Abbas and a volunteer, Melissa Angus.

He said there was lot of misinterpretation by many of the animal lovers.

“When the authority said they were going to catch those birds, we had this negative mind-set and came here with one of our volunteer, Melissa, to see that they (authority) meant well.

“When they said the overpopulation causing hazard, yes, we can accept that, and here we are now to release all the birds with tags and see if these birds will fly back to Tg Aru flyover,” he said.