Messy pair of doves in my garden - legal to dispatch them?

[sundial]

There's a messy pair of collared doves in my garden and my neighbours' amply filled bird feeders encourage them to stay. The doves sit on the fence and mess all along along it - and on my garden waste bins - and they have damaged the woven fence panels squeezing through them ... and they mess all over the patio .. and over my car if left in my driveway.

Is it against the law for me to dispatch the doves? I want to trap them and quickly pull their necks.

This might sound cruel but they are never going to go away. I have yet to inspect my gutters where they make ominous scratching noises first thing every morning.

I had a quick look on the internet but all I found was an RSPB forum thread about how wonderful it is to have doves in the garden :roll:

Cheers

dunk

[village]

Yes it legal to kill the little buggers....and pigeons and other pests.
Avoid poison 'cause the neighbours cat will just eat it and then there is all sorts of problems,plus there's a good chance you'll kill off the local 'nice' birdlife as well.
Sonic stuff is a waste of time if you just want to scare them...if you can trap them thats ok.
What you need is an air rifle but make sure you shoot with something behind them to stop the shot ie from an upstairs window when they are on the lawn rather then from the garden when they are sat on the eaves.

[sundial]

Yes it legal to kill the little buggers....and pigeons and other pests.
Avoid poison 'cause the neighbours cat will just eat it and then there is all sorts of problems,plus there's a good chance you'll kill off the local 'nice' birdlife as well.
Sonic stuff is a waste of time if you just want to scare them...if you can trap them thats ok.
What you need is an air rifle but make sure you shoot with something behind them to stop the shot ie from an upstairs window when they are on the lawn rather then from the garden when they are sat on the eaves.

I'm planning to trap them using a an upturned box with a stick on a piece of string supporting one edge - put some food inside - pull the string when the dove enters. But I'm going to tell my neighbour about the plan first - I get the impression he likes the darn things.

Cheers

dunk

[seadog1408]

dont tell anyone, just get rid of them quietly, nobody the wiser nobody to complain. :lol:


cheers
mike :wink:

[village]

dont tell anyone, just get rid of them quietly, nobody the wiser nobody to complain. :lol:


cheers
mike :wink:

Indeed...you don't want the do-gooder brigade getting involved

[ralphy]

dont tell anyone, just get rid of them quietly, nobody the wiser nobody to complain. :lol:


cheers
mike :wink:

"To seek approval is to invite denial" - a useful maxim passed on to me by a very wise man some time ago and one I've used to my advantage over the years. :wink:

R

[Stanford]

dont tell anyone, just get rid of them quietly, nobody the wiser nobody to complain. :lol:


cheers
mike :wink:

Indeed...you don't want the do-gooder brigade getting involved

Agreed.... :) (the parakeets are the problem around my way, and anything other than discreet 'disposal' is really bound to attract the attentions of the bleeding hearts)

[magirus]

Say nowt and discreetly get rid. I have a pair doing the same, and going the same way.

[dawson2k5]

it is far easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to seek permission
Thanks,
Andrew

[Scottishtrunkmonkey]

Flamethrower

[swanbourne]

I wouldn't kill anything and I don't think you should either but that's just my opinion. Next time you irritate someone and they think it's a good idea to kill you, reflect on your own actions. Think yourself lucky your parents didn't have a similar attitude when you were a small child and crapped on the carpet.

Eddie

[Tooks]

As well as sharing the views above of our kind host, ie you shouldn't really kill anything unless you're going to eat it, then consider that if you dispatch those two, then more will come to replace them.

Before you know it, your full time occupation will be trying to catch and dispatch garden birds.

They have a tough enough time surviving as it is, so I say leave them be. Poo washes off your car, feathers sweep up, I dare say the scratching on your guttering won't be causing any damage, and just how flimsy are your fence panels if dove's can bend them?! :D

Sorry if that makes me a 'do gooder'...

[sundial]

I wouldn't kill anything and I don't think you should either but that's just my opinion. Next time you irritate someone and they think it's a good idea to kill you, reflect on your own actions. Think yourself lucky your parents didn't have a similar attitude when you were a small child and crapped on the carpet.

Eddie

I do not want to kill the doves but what other solution is there to prevent all the damage? My landlord is about to replace the fence partly because the doves have ruined it. When the new fence goes up they will perch half the day on it and mess all over it. The doves roost in my eaves and perch in my gutters and are probably damaging the roof. The mess they make on my windows and patio requires very frequent scraping and cleaning. If I capture the doves and take them to London they will probably fly back again. Maybe I'll try capturing them first and releasing them where there might be an alternative food supply.

Cheers

dunk

[village]

If you capture and release they will return. True..if you kill them then others will take their place but not till the next breeding & nesting season (i think).


From my point of view, the pigeons in my garden produced unbelievable amounts of crap all over the lawn and patio.....personally i don't want my two kids coming in covered in it. They are rats with feathers and i would rather keep killing them than have a shit covered garden,house and children.

[Tooks]

Awww, what's not to like?

Here are my two, I shall call them Sundial & Village now... :D :lol:

[stevieb]

I'm planning to trap them using a an upturned box with a stick on a piece of string supporting one edge - put some food inside - pull the string when the dove enters. But I'm going to tell my neighbour about the plan first

Just don't use food the neighbour likes.... :wink:

[catflem]

Shoot the bloody things and be done with it.

I've got coypu digging bloody great big holes in the banks of my pond (at .5 of an acre I'm not sure if it's a pond or a lake), and a f*****g heron helping himself to my carp. On top of that we have foxes/weasels/rats helping themselves to our ducklings.

As long as the rifle you are using is up to the job, and your aim is true, get it over and done with.

French air rifles are not up to the job of despatching a coypu cleanly, so I've spent the last month trying to trap the b£$%&*£s, got the proper traps, using the right baits, but still they evade capture.

The Heron is protected, so I've got to suffer the so & so :evil: .

[sundial]

I used to like doves too until they caused all the mess and damage. There were several pairs of white doves at a nearby nursing home complex and they bred so rapidly that the home was overrun with them and their droppings. The home manager then had to have them destroyed because of the health hazard - patients' and residents' meals were wheeled from the kitchen to the various houses.

Cheers

dunk

[Tooks]

I used to like doves too until they caused all the mess and damage. There were several pairs of white doves at a nearby nursing home complex and they bred so rapidly that the home was overrun with them and their droppings. The home manager then had to have them destroyed because of the health hazard - patients meals were wheeled from the kitchen to the various houses.

Cheers

dunk

In all seriousness, I do know they can be messy, but the problem is any solution you come up with will be a short term one.

I think dispatching them quickly and humanely would be preferable to driving them a distance away and releasing them, as they will suffer more distress that way.

They are actually quite territorial (http://www.britishbirdlovers.co.uk/b...ared-dove.html), which is why I think removing those two will just create space for others. The ultimate solution may be to persuade your neighbour to stop feeding the birds, but it sounds like that's not going to happen. I used to feed birds in the garden, but that stopped when we got a cat as he found it too easy to catch them. Eventually, most birds stopped coming to the garden. Maybe you should get a cat?

If you do remove the pair you've got, at least you can hope that the ones that take their place may have better manners though! :)

[Saint-Just]

you could tell your neighbour you're going to get a cat for Christmas, and that it might be a good idea if he stopped feeding the birds for their own sake.

[sundial]

n. Maybe you should get a cat?

If you do remove the pair you've got, at least you can hope that the ones that take their place may have better manners though! :)

I like cats but I'm allergic to them - make my eyes itch and make me sneeze. There are lots of cats in the neighbourhood but I have never seen a cat catch a dove. A cat or cats is not the answer.

Cheers

dunk

[sundial]

[

I think dispatching them quickly and humanely would be preferable to driving them a distance away and releasing them, as they will suffer more distress that way.

But homing pigeons are sent hundreds of miles and then released and does not do them harm.

dunk

[Omegary]

Shoot the bloody things and be done with it.

I've got coypu digging bloody great big holes in the banks of my pond (at .5 of an acre I'm not sure if it's a pond or a lake), and a f*****g heron helping himself to my carp. On top of that we have foxes/weasels/rats helping themselves to our ducklings.

As long as the rifle you are using is up to the job, and your aim is true, get it over and done with.

French air rifles are not up to the job of despatching a coypu cleanly, so I've spent the last month trying to trap the b£$%&*£s, got the proper traps, using the right baits, but still they evade capture.

The Heron is protected, so I've got to suffer the so & so :evil: .

Grey Herons are highly territorial, a decoy heron should see yours off. Loads on fleabay for around a tenner.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/__heron+de ... 459_228460

Cheers,

Gary

[Saint-Just]

My cat was very good at catching anything, including doves. and he would eat the breast. Unfortunately he tried to catch a car :cry:

The idea is not "getting" a cat, it is to find a good excuse to tell your neighbour to stop feeding the things. You would do that as a bird lover yourself, don't want the little creatures to come to any harm, etc.

Then come Christmas you can always change your mind

[Tooks]

n. Maybe you should get a cat?

If you do remove the pair you've got, at least you can hope that the ones that take their place may have better manners though! :)

I like cats but I'm allergic to them - make my eyes itch and make me sneeze. There are lots of cats in the neighbourhood but I have never seen a cat catch a dove. A cat or cats is not the answer.

Cheers

dunk

Sorry, didn't know about the allergy thing.

My cat used to catch doves, and rabbits and all sorts. I came home one evening to find a dead pheasant wedged in the cat flap, he was a proper little hunter!

[village]

I've got coypu digging bloody great big holes in the banks of my pond (at .5 of an acre I'm not sure if it's a pond or a lake), and a f*****g heron helping himself to my carp. On top of that we have foxes/weasels/rats helping themselves to our ducklings.
.

Ah...coypu...my parents are always complaining about them. They live in the middle of nowhere in the Limousine, but then they also get wild boar sauntering around (unless the chasse is around!).
On the plus side they do manage to get hold of the odd free lump of boar/venison so not all bad!

[Tooks]

[

I think dispatching them quickly and humanely would be preferable to driving them a distance away and releasing them, as they will suffer more distress that way.

But homing pigeons are sent hundreds of miles and then released and does not do them harm.

dunk

I'm not an expert on homing pigeons, but I think they are different to Doves.

The Doves would be used to the same roost every night, and they pair up etc. Personally, I think it would be more cruel to try and move them, especially as the chances of catching both are slim.

Can you block up the access to your loft/eaves etc? How about putting something on top of the fence to stop them sitting there, those sort of spike things you see in the town centres on public buildings etc?

[GraniteQuarry]

Pigeon Pie :twisted:

Would it not be possible to just keep chasing them till they bugger off??

[cannedheat]

this should work



as a last resort, of course.

good luck.

[taffytoon]

For christ sake do not shoot them with an air rifle if they are on a fence. If the pellet goes into next door garden you can be arrested for Armed Trepass :shock:

[cannedheat]

another one:

put some cheap discreet white wine soaked old bread for their feeding. predators should do the dirty part.

as a last resort too, of course.

[jukeboxs]

Our cats kill pigeons or doves every few weeks (and bring them back home, lovely). Pity you're allergic to them, it could've been a natural solution to the problem.

[Panofsky]

Jeeesus. If I was your neighbour I'd be looking for ways of getting rid of you not the doves. What's a bit of bird crap - are you proposing to institute a no-fly zone over the garden and blast away at all winged 'trespassers'.

Dave

[sundial]

Jeeesus. If I was your neighbour I'd be looking for ways of getting rid of you not the doves. What's a bit of bird crap - are you proposing to institute a no-fly zone over the garden and blast away at all winged 'trespassers'.

Dave

Don't be silly

dunk

[Paneraiseeker]

I like birds in my garden i can live with a bit of bird crap.

[ralphy]

Ah...coypu...my parents are always complaining about them. They live in the middle of nowhere in the Limousine, but then they also get wild boar sauntering around (unless the chasse is around!).

Celebrity coypu's?

R

[catflem]

Shoot the bloody things and be done with it.

I've got coypu digging bloody great big holes in the banks of my pond (at .5 of an acre I'm not sure if it's a pond or a lake), and a f*****g heron helping himself to my carp. On top of that we have foxes/weasels/rats helping themselves to our ducklings.

As long as the rifle you are using is up to the job, and your aim is true, get it over and done with.

French air rifles are not up to the job of despatching a coypu cleanly, so I've spent the last month trying to trap the b£$%&*£s, got the proper traps, using the right baits, but still they evade capture.

The Heron is protected, so I've got to suffer the so & so :evil: .

Grey Herons are highly territorial, a decoy heron should see yours off. Loads on fleabay for around a tenner.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/__heron+de ... 459_228460

Cheers,

Gary

If only it was that simple, we've tried the decoys (anyone want to buy a slightly shagged or duffed uo heron decoy :blackeye: ). We've just had to accept that the fecker is going to help himself to our fish as and when he wants them. We chase him off about 4 times day but he's usually back within the hour.

[johnbaz]

somebody's cat keeps catching the wood pigeon that lands in our garden- there are regularly feathers all over the lawn, i never find the carcass though so whatever is catching them must be eating them, we have all sorts of wildlife come through the back garden but i reckon it's a cat (possibly ferral??)

dunno about doves but ferral pigeon (apparently!) can infect humans with more diseases than rats :shock:
on our cranes at work, there is pigeon crap all over, the fitters play hell up when they come down covered in the stuff :pukeleft:

i love it when birds come into our garden, we've also had badgers, bats, hedgehogs and a stray dog that managed to get through the hedges :lol:


john :)

[Bristolian]

Ah...coypu...my parents are always complaining about them. They live in the middle of nowhere in the Limousine, but then they also get wild boar sauntering around (unless the chasse is around!).

Celebrity coypu's?

R

:D :D :D

Less well known coypus might try :


Dove Pie
ingredients
serves 5 - 6
5 fl oz (150 ml) red wine
2 tablespoons (30 ml) port
6 juniper berries, crushed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
6 doves
1 oz (25 g) butter
1 tbsp (15 ml) vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 rashers streaky bacon, rinds removed, chopped
12 oz (350 g) chuck steak, trimmed and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) cubes
6 oz (175 g) flat mushrooms, thickly sliced
few sprigs of parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
12 oz (350 g) shortcrust pastry
method
1. Mix together wine, port, juniper berries and oil for the marinade and season with freshly ground black pepper. Remove breasts from the doves and cut into large pieces. Put into a non-metallic dish, pour over the marinade, cover. Leave in fridge overnight.

2. Melt the butter and oil in a frying pan, add the onion and bacon and fry gently for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, reserve.

3. Remove dove from the marinade, drain. Reserve marinade. Increase heat and fry the dove and the steak in batches, sealing on all sides.

4. Put the dove, steak, onion and bacon into a 2 pint (1.25 litre) pie dish and top with the mushrooms. Sprinkle with herbs, pour over the reserved marinade.

5. Roll out the pastry to 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick, put a pie funnel into the dish. Cut a 1/2 inch (1 cm) strip of pastry and place around the edge of the dish. Brush with water and top with the remaining pastry. Use the pastry trimmings to decorate the top of the pie.

6. Bake at Mark 4 (180°C) 350°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to Mark 2 (150°C) 300°F and cook for a further 1 1/2 hours. Cover the pastry with foil if it browns too much during cooking.

Would go well with a pinot noir (Ideally Dove Valley)

Regards

David

[WORKSIMON]

A thin wire attached to the top of your fence and roofline will stop them perching on the fence as they cannot stand on it and some chicken wire fence over your gutters will prevent the scratching.

I could not even kill a fly without great remorse I'm afraid, live and let live etc

[ralphy]

A thin wire attached to the top of your fence and roofline will stop them perching on the fence as they cannot stand on it and some chicken wire fence over your gutters will prevent the scratching.

I could not even kill a fly without great remorse I'm afraid, live and let live etc

I can 'do' flies with no qualms whatsoever :twisted:, but not much else.

R

[Dapper]

I'm planning to trap them using a an upturned box with a stick on a piece of string supporting one edge - put some food inside - pull the string when the dove enters.

Cheers

dunk

I thought they only did it that way in cartoons :D

[Glamdring]

This will be expensive but as was noted earlier I'm sure you could improvise your own.
http://www.hotfoot.com/spring-pd.html

[davek]

Dunk, learn to love them. They are beautiful to look at and to listen to. There's enough unnecessary death already in this world.

[justin44]

Buy a cat! We have two and i have never seen a bird in my garden.

[houlbt]

Ask them to leave... if they don't shoot them & move on. If they can't understand english it's their loss. :roll:

[DeusIrae]

Install spikes on the fence.

http://www.deterapigeon.com/pigeon_control.htm

[sundial]

Dunk, learn to love them. They are beautiful to look at and to listen to. There's enough unnecessary death already in this world.

When they first arrived I enjoyed them as they are very attractive birds. After over 12 months of their mess and all the clearing up required I no longer enjoy them and regard them as pests. If some of you had the same problem you would probably feel the same way as I do now. I'm a former member of the RSPB, British Butterfly Conservation Society and British Dragonfly Society and still support them although I'm not an active member. I regard myself as a conservationist and have planted flowers and shrubs in my garden to encourage insects. I would not kill any insect or crustacean (woodlice) or arthropod (spider) or garden worm and I enjoy watching their activities and encourage them - they are part of my garden's normal eco system - especially in the compost heap. There are toads in my garden and I enjoy those too.

I expect many of you dove lovers have dispatched more than a few ants in your time by various means - I would never do that even if they invade my kitchen and I'm fascinated by their life style viewtopic.php?f=2&t=76634&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=ant s&start=15

However, I have reached a point with the doves where I'm very weary of clearing up their incessant mess and repairing their damage and something has to be done about them.

dunk

[Tooks]

Dunk, learn to love them. They are beautiful to look at and to listen to. There's enough unnecessary death already in this world.

When they first arrived I enjoyed them as they are very attractive birds. After over 12 months of their mess and all the clearing up required I no longer enjoy them and regard them as pests. If some of you had the same problem you would probably feel the same way as I do now. I'm a former member of the RSPB, British Butterfly Conservation Society and British Dragonfly Society and still support them although I'm not an active member. I regard myself as a conservationist and have planted flowers and shrubs in my garden to encourage insects. I would not kill any insect or crustacean (woodlice) or arthropod (spider) or garden worm and I enjoy watching their activities and encourage them - they are part of my garden's eco normal system - especially in compost heap. There are toads in my garden and I enjoy those too.

I expect many of you dove lovers have dispatched more than a few ants in your time by various means - I would never do that even if they invade my kitchen and I'm fascinated by their life style viewtopic.php?f=2&t=76634&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=ant s&start=15

However, I have reached a point with the doves where I'm very weary of clearing up their incessant mess and repairing their damage and something has to be done about them.

dunk

Ok, so you seem to be saying you're a committed conservationist, until that is it all becomes a bit tiresome? :?

Birds make mess, yes, but we make more. I don't understand why you posted this question to be honest. A topic like this will always polarise opinion. A quick check on the BASC website would have shown that you can legally kill Doves, so that's that I guess.

You've been given several things to try to deter them in the thread, so I suggest you try some of those? If you don't want to, then do whatever you want to do, but I doubt you will get universal approval for killing them here, which is perhaps what you want?

I'm sorry if I sound irritated by this, but quite honestly, if all you've got to worry about is mess from Doves, then you should count yourself very lucky indeed! :)

[sundial]

Am now considering deterrents rather than culling. If the doves are dispatched it would probably not be long before another pair arrive especially as my neighbour has bird feeders and bird tables. However, the pigeon spikes do not seem to be suitable for fences. The garden fence is due for replacement soon partly because of the damage caused by the doves. I'll have to wait until my landlord has replaced the fence to see what type it is and which suitable perching deterrent can be considered.

Thank you for your opinions.

Cheers

dunk