Walking through the streets of many Italian cities you cannot but notice that there are many pigeons, which wander among the outdoor tables of bars in search of some crumbs, or fly above the heads of passersby. Moving away pigeons has become the watchword of many Italian cities, but pigeons are not the only animals that disturb the peace of Italian cities: some cities, especially in summer, must face the problem of rats.
Rome, just to make an example, has already raised alert over rats: favored by heat and bins full of waste, this summer rats seem to have proliferated in Italy’s capital city, endangering also the work of many owners of bars and restaurants, who often see these animals passing between the legs of their customers. And all this happens in the city centre, in parts of the cities that are always full of tourists, like Trastevere and Castel Sant’Angelo, where rats move also during the day, defying the tourists that visit the city. A real emergency, which has required extraordinary measures of rodent control.
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However, as said above, rats are not the only undesired animals living in Italian cities, which are also affected by the problem of pigeons, which besides being disease vehicles are also dangerous for buildings and monuments, as their excrements do not only make them dirty, but also corrode them causing serious damages. Italian cities are adopting many different measures to solve the problem and stop the proliferation of these birds, from falconers to the prohibition of feeding them. The aim is solving the problem of pigeons without exterminating them, but stopping their invasion in a softer way. Nothing to do with the catapults to catch pigeons that have been experimented in Barcelona, a non Italian city where, according to experts, the number of pigeons is ten times over the normal level. The technique used in Barcelona snares pigeons in a sort of net, then the birds are killed through gas. In Italian cities, especially in the most tourist ones, feeding animals is prohibited, and sanctions can be very high, but in addition to this preventive measures there are also other methods, which are meant to solve the already existing problem.
Falconers, for example, are much sought-after, as they can move pigeons away without doing them any harm. In theory, hawks hunt birds to eat them, but the hawks that are usually used to clear certain areas from the siege of these birds are trained to chase pigeons, not to kill them. Driving off pigeons from city centers means preventing them from make streets and monuments dirty. Hawks usually start their “job” at night, when pigeons come back to their nests, to disturb them and force them to find another place where to stay. The first results can be achieved also after few days, but it might also take longer.
