Mallorca pigeon shoot: 1,000 birds amid plague row

Mallorca’s pigeon plague fuels a row: an island councillor says 1,000 birds were used at a shoot in Felanitx, Mallorca, in late September. At a Mallorca Island Council meeting on Thursday, 8 October, environment, rural affairs and sports councillor Pedro Bestard denies that the event has made the problem worse.

Antoni Salas, a spokesman for the El PI party, puts the number of pigeons released at 2,000 and suspects many escaped. He says the shoot is at odds with a hunting emergency the council declared two months earlier after pigeon numbers grew out of control. Pigeon droppings can damage heritage sites, he warns, while controlling the birds’ spread costs Mallorca’s town halls dearly.

Bestard disputes Salas’s figure. He says around 100 hunters took part and that no bird capable of causing harm was left alive after the shoot. He rejects a link between the event and the hunting emergency, blaming the pigeon plague instead on a ban on pigeon shooting imposed ten years ago.

Topics: Nature & wildlife · Felanitx

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com