Pigeon feeders are a frustration for condo dwellers
City bylaws tolerate pigeon feeders as long as they stay out of the parks.
Toronto Star
By Jack Lakey Contributing Columnist
22 January 2020
Pigeons and people who feed them seem to be the bane of condo residents whose balconies are co-opted by the birds as roosts.
Last month I wrote about an unusual side effect of large numbers of pigeons drawn to a particular spot by scattered seed: So many end up perching on nearby electrical lines that the wires touch and short out, cutting power to local customers.
Marty Greenberg, who lives near Bathurst St. and Steeles Ave. W., the area where birds on wires are causing power outages, blames the city and politicians for not cracking down on people who feed them.
But it is not illegal to spread bird seed on private property or even on city property, as long as it isn’t a park, where feeding of animals is prohibited. That may explain why bird seed is so often spread on boulevards or within the municipal road allowance.
One email came from Nigel Bradbury, president of the board of directors of a condo development at 509 Beecroft Rd., at the southeast corner of Beecroft and Finch Ave. W.
“We have been involved in a months-long battle of removing feed (by hand) and having unknown persons replacing it,” he said. “One of my fellow directors approached a woman placing feed at this location last winter and got an earful of profanities.”
Until a bunch of politicians are convinced that bylaws need to be changed to put a stop to it on public property — and good luck with that — feeding of pigeons is likely to continue.
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