Rome’s mayor has banned a woman from feeding pigeons from her third story balcony after neighbors complained about the birds leaving countless droppings and creating a health hazard. Residents said for months their complaints appeared to go unanswered as excrement covered the apartment building and cars below at 108 Via Spartaco, as reported by Roma Today.
Dubbed ‘The Pigeon Lady’
The woman accused of creating the chaos, who local media has nicknamed “The Pigeon Lady,” has been feeding the birds despite requests from neighbors and the mayor to stop. She is now responding to the allegations.
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‘I rescue animals in distress’
“I am an animal rights activist with the Italian League for Bird Protection – a major environmental organization in Italy dedicated to wildlife conservation,” she told local news website Roma Today. “I rescue animals in distress: I don’t feed them for a hobby. I rescue pigeons and other animals like cats and dogs. I put out food in order to save them. Obviously, if I put food out for one pigeon, others were bound to come. But there have been so many lies, slanders and threats against me.”
When asked about the pigeon droppings, she said, “I’ll fix it – for myself, for the people living here, and for the poor pigeons who are the real victims. In the meantime, I’ve stopped putting out feed; I hope they’ll go away. They get run over here.”
‘Making our lives hell’
Neighbors said they had recorded the woman feeding the pigeons by placing food outside her window. One resident said that the dozens of pigeons and resulting droppings is “making our lives hell.“
Another neighbor also claimed the pigeons are now laying eggs and others have said the street below is now covered with pigeon droppings, creating a terrible stench and a potential health hazard, noting that a nursery is nearby.
“We are prisoners in our own homes, hostages to a ridiculous situation that has made daily life unbearable,” one woman told FanPage. “After years of putting up with this and trying to talk, we can’t take it anymore.”
Homes allegedly devalued
A city official who is looking into the matter said the pigeon droppings have “devalued the homes and made them difficult to sell” in the area.
Roman officials have stressed that there is “no direct evidence yet of health problems,” but warned that the situation does present a potential health threat to people. Therefore, the mayor has issued “a ban on feeding pigeons and other wild birds, explicitly forbidding the throwing of seed or food scraps on the ground.” The order also states that residents on the third floor of the apartment are required to “at their own expense, within 10 days of receiving the order, carry out cleaning, sanitation, pest control and disinfection of the affected areas, restoring appropriate hygiene, safety and health conditions.”
Still reports of unlawful feeding
Despite the order, one resident accused the woman of once again feeding the pigeons. Law enforcement was sent out, but as of Thursday, the woman had not been observed feeding the birds by authorities.
If the woman is found to be in violation of the order, Roman authorities have been told they may need to directly intervene in the situation.
