Shocking sight for shoppers as bird found 'lynched'
Published on 3rd May 2007 in News
DELIBERATE DEATH?: The unpleasant sight that greeted passers-by as the dead pigeon hangs from the roof ledge.
It wasn't a pretty sight in Howden earlier this week when a dead pigeon was found hanging from a roof ledge above the Co-op supermarket in Church Side.
A member of the public contacted this newspaper on Tuesday (May 1), and sent in these rather unpleasant photographs.
It is not known how the pigeon came to be hanging, but our reader suggested that someone could have done this deliberately.
However, John Kershaw, secretary of Goole and District RSPCA, said that it was unlikely that the bird was killed purposely.
"It hasn't come to my attention that anyone in the local area has been killing pigeons in this way," he said.
"It may be that the pigeon just got a piece of wire caught around its neck."
Pigeons have been a nuisance in Howden for quite some time, and town councillor Christine Burton told this newspaper that several complaints have been made over the birds in the past, as they nest above shops in the town centre.
Cllr Burton said: "Pigeons are a nuisance in Howden, but this is also an on-going problem in a lot of places.
"If they nest above shops, then it is up to shop owners to deal with them.
"But, if they are deterred from shop roofs, they could move to the Minster and nobody wants them there."