Pest bird management — targeting pigeons, starlings, gulls, and corvids — uses a range of lethal and non-lethal methods with varying welfare implications. Evidence-based pest bird management minimizes suffering while achieving control objectives.
Pest bird welfare involves the familiar tension between effective population management and welfare-positive methods. Poisoning is welfare-poor: death is slow, non-target species are affected, and raptors that consume poisoned birds suffer secondary poisoning. Shooting, when accurately performed, can be rapid but requires significant skill and appropriate conditions. Trapping carries welfare costs from stress, exposure, and inadequate holding conditions. Non-lethal approaches — fertility control, habitat modification, exclusion systems — address the root drivers of pest bird populations without causing direct suffering. Cities that have implemented comprehensive dovecote and fertility control programs for pigeons have achieved population stabilization comparable to lethal control while substantially reducing animal suffering. The evidence increasingly supports non-lethal approaches as both effective and welfare-superior.