Having pigeons on your roof is a hassle no doubt about it, but I thought getting rid of them would have happened a completely different way. Pigeons have always been a problem in Utah (surprise! I’m not from NYC) which you wouldn’t think of as a problem animal here but it is. I’m the landlord for an apartment building here in Sandy and I have more complaints about pigeons than I do about wolf spiders! Well finally I decided I had to do something more because the bird spikes didn’t seem to be affecting the pigeon population at all! So I took to the internet to find help.
I typed ‘Pigeon problems in UT’ into the search bar and the second thing to pop up was AllstateAnimalControl.com and, after confirming the job, I was contacted by a technician. I told him about the pigeons on the roof and all the troubles they caused and I must have gotten excited because I do recall saying something along the lines of “You can shoot them for all I care!” Well my 13 year old son must have heard that because he took it very literally. I received more calls that day than any other and I couldn’t believe what they were calling about.
A month earlier my husband took Josh to get his hunting license, last week they went dove shooting and I heard Josh was quite the shot. It turns out that he was just as good as he said he was. After hearing my comment about the pigeons, he decided that he would take care of the pigeons on the roof himself and save me money (or at least I hope that’s what he was thinking). Do you see where this is going? He and his best friend took their small .22 caliber rifles across the street to a gas station, and proceeded to pick off every pigeon one by one. Well they only got through about 12 before I got a call from both the cops and just about every tenant in the building telling me what was going on. Oh I was livid! Not only did I have to pay a fine for them shooting a gun in public, but I still had to pay to get the pigeons off the roof! My advice is this: if you have pigeon problems, don’t let your son hear about it!