The Jewish community supports the Quaker monk parakeets, and together they stopped Con Edison from removing their nests so you cannot say that the Councilman is an anti-bird person; perhaps he is concerned about garbage and erroneously believes that the feed is responsible.  He probably does not realize it is all eaten up in several minutes by pigeons that are starving for food.  If Councilman Felder will investigate he will find that it is people who create garbage and not pigeons.  But if the Bill passes I will be feeding other birds instead, since bird feeding is a pasttime that I enjoy.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/proposal-to-control-pigeons-fine-the-hands-that-feed-them/index.html?hp

Today, City Councilman Simcha Felder, Democrat of Brooklyn, today put out a detailed report [pdf] proposing legislation and other recommendations to curb the city’s pigeon population. The report contains some rather, er, new approaches to the bird problem.

New York City is both a good and bad environment for pigeons, as an Agriculture Department handbook [pdf] explains. Urban life reduces the average life span of a pigeon from 15 years to between 2 and 3. (Could it be the stress?) But urban birds also reproduce more prodigiously — four to six times a year, compared with twice a year in the wild — given the abundance of food and shelter and the relative lack of predators. Hence, New York’s pigeon proliferation.

There are many ways to kill pigeons. Shooting them, as the Agriculture Department handbook notes wisely, is probably a bad idea in New York City. Pigeon poisons have often failed in the long run, as the first birds to die were the weak and the old ones, leaving more room for their fertile brethren to reproduce.

Instead, Mr. Felder’s report advocates a birth control strategy — one that Councilman James S. Oddo, Republican of Staten Island, also recently recommended: birth control through a pesticide, OvoControl P, that recently received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency and has been used in several cities to control pigeon population.

But Mr. Felder’s top recommendation is directed not so much at the birds as the humans. He wants to introduce fines, in an effort to turn public opinion against the pigeons and the people who feed them. (One such strategy was attempted in Basel, Switzerland.) One could say that Mr. Felder’s proposal would have New Yorkers rat on their neighbors.

Asked about fines for those who feed pigeons, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg expressed skepticism today, but agreed that feeding pigeons should be discouraged:

I think that while I love animals and I love birds we do have a lot of pigeons and they do tend to foul a lot of our areas and people would be better off not feeding the pigeons. Those that are here will find food and they just won’t grow at such a rapid rate and we’d probably be better off.

Another proposal is to anoint a city “pigeon czar” who would consolidate responsibility of the feral birds. Right now, oversight of the pigeon population in New York City falls in the purview of several different state and city agencies that oversee public health, transportation and the environment. The report states, “The Pigeon Czar would address the big-picture obstacles that face urban pigeon control, while working with other city, state and federal agencies in New York City to ensure that all appropriate and necessary site-specific methods of exclusion are introduced systematically and effectively.”

City Room observes that consolidating responsibilities under a central czar has been a trend in recent years — with mixed success. A pigeon czar, one hopes, would not just add another level of bureaucracy.

Diane Cardwell contributed reporting.

This over-stuffed jackass, Felder, is the one that said that, if the City Council passed a bill banning foie gras in NYC, he would make a point of bringing chopped liver to work at the council every day. The idea of a "pigeon czar" is moronic and ain't gonna happen, though it is possible that Quinn, a notoriously anti-animal type, might allow a ban on pigeon feeding to pass.

Feeding birds in NYC has been against the law for YEARS.  Where have you guys been?  In NYC, if you are seen feeding birds, you get a $100.00 fine.  It was even a big news story a few years ago, when a man got a fine on his 95th birthday!  I was born and raised here, in Manhattan, and I am 51.  It's been against the law for YEARS.