Urban pigeons are among the most numerous birds in British cities yet receive little welfare consideration, facing hazards including netting entanglement, anti-roosting spikes, and poisoning attempts.
Urban pigeons suffer from human management methods intended to discourage their presence. Poorly installed or maintained netting traps birds that become entangled and die slowly from starvation and dehydration. Spike systems can injure birds attempting to land. Poisoning causes a prolonged and painful death. Yet pigeons face genuine conflict with human interests - building damage, fouling, and disease risk. Humane contraception programmes address the population problem without causing individual suffering and are increasingly used by progressive urban authorities.