State measures to reduce the pigeon population in Bangkok as well as legal protocols cracking down on bird feeders do not prevent the kind-hearted from showing their love for the animals by feeding them.
A woman covers her mouth and nose as she walks past a flock of pigeons before boarding a shuttle boat at Wat Rakang pier in Thon Buri. Photo: Apichart Jinakul
"If I don't feed them, no one else would," said Weerasak Sunthonjamorn, a 61-year-old man who went viral last year for feeding more than 200 pigeons for over three decades.
Weerasak is not the only one doing so. Another prominent recent example is the lady known as Auntie Pigeon, who has fed pigeons at her home in the Laksi area for years. This has, unfortunately, caused problems and complaints among her neighbours, which eventually forced her to make a promise to stop feeding the mass of pigeons at her house last month. Like Weerasak and Auntie Pigeon, many people who continue to feed the birds do so because of their love for animals and merit-making.
Years after the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)'s efforts to reduce the pigeon population, cracking down on bird feeders and seed sellers at pigeon-infested attractions like Sanam Luang, the flocks still call the city home.
This time around, the BMA has imposed a three-month jail term and 25,000 baht fine on transgressors to address concerns of public health and hygiene. Yet, despite signs and cage traps placed throughout the city, especially in Bangkok's 37 public parks, the pigeons continue to be fed.
"At least Thailand still considers the feeding ban, which is probably the most humane method available," said veterinarian Paisilp Lekjaroen. "In other countries, hunting and killing is enforced."
Truth is, pigeons have natural instincts to hunt for food, and their survival would not be threatened with the new regulation implemented by the BMA. The pigeons we see today originate from rock doves, a species native to the cliffs and mountains of Europe, North Africa and western Asia.
In Bangkok, though, they're considered an invasive species, according to Dr Non Phanitwong of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand.
Infamous for their tendency to poop on everything -- from cars and people to homes and historical landmarks -- pigeons also harm biodiversity in the city. With a rising population, pigeons are able to outcompete native birds in food-gathering, especially without any prominent predators.
The problem doesn't lie in pigeons themselves, but rather their quantity, added Paisilp. Gathered together in huge flocks, these birds spread diseases through their dried-up faeces, which can be transmitted to humans through inhalation and ingestion. The faeces can cause a range of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases -- with symptoms such as lung, brain, eye and skin inflammation, rashes, fever, diarrhoea and even miscarriage in pregnant women -- which can be especially hazardous to people with weak immune systems, elderly people and children.
While experts agree that the new ban on feeding seems promising in reducing the number of pigeons, both of those interviewed for this article do not support the BMA's catch-and-release plan.
"Releasing [the pigeons] in other cities will only move the problem to another place. More importantly, I think these pigeons would return anyway if they wanted to," Dr Non said. "Besides, diseases from the city would just infect wild birds of the forest."
Pigeons are also especially good at remembering directions back home, and in today's nature, the city -- offering an easy, abundant source of food from tourists, street food stalls and garbage dumps, as well as unlimited locations for nesting on terraces, abandoned buildings and utility poles -- is their home.
"Even if we stop feeding them, without managing our food waste the pigeons would come back anyway," Asst Prof Thanis Damrongwatanapakin, a professor at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Veterinary Science, said.
"Only if done by routine, rather than on and off, would the ban work."
