I wonder if anyone here might be able to help and give me some advice. I have been searching the internet without much luck :-(
After a walk around our back fields this afternoon, I was horified to find a pile of dead pigeons had been dumped over the fence in the far corner !! Luckily the dogs weren't with me but, I still couldn't believe what I saw. It is quite usual and most upsetting that the 'farmers' next door shoot birds which are right on the boundary of our land and therefore you do get quite a few bodies as it is without them then dumping 30-40 in a big old pile also !!!!!!!!!!! Why on earth would you go and shoot lots of perfectly innocent animals as a hobby and then throw their dead bodies onto someone elses land where you know full well there are children and dogs ?? Is there anything I can do ?? Surely this must be illegal ?? Does anyone know where I could find out ??

Thank you

What a waste. Pigeon is delicious!

I think pigeons are nothing more than flying rats I'm afraid, they spread so much mess and disease! Shame you had to find them like that...but I would view it as a Farmer protecting his crop, the same way as he would shoot little fluffy rabbits!!! Sorry, I'm a Country gal!

It's not illegal if he has a gun license, obviously no one was around when he was shooting, otherwise they would have phoned the Police? I'm sure anyone sensible enough to have a gun license would be pretty responsible these days?

Me too. I don't have a problem with them being shot because they do so much crop damage, but to dump the bodies is a waste of good food.

Does seem strange I take it they are wood pidgeon ? If farmers shoot them how to they normally dispose of the bodies surley just dumping in those numbers is odd.

I think you need a licence to shoot pigeon as they are classified as a pest, but I would imagine the farmer has this. Dumping them is a different issue and I would phone your local environmental health department who should at least check it out. We once found 3 dead deer and a dead sheep down a banking (smelled them before we saw them) and phoned police as it seemed odd, they told us environmental health would deal with it.

Where I live we have had over the last year a lot of problems with people shooting illegally and coursing illegally. In both cases they have dumped the bodies when they have finished. The police are aware and we now have regular patrols around the area. Perhaps somebody has been shooting illegally? It is not usual for people legally shooting to dump bodies, regardless of whether or not they are pigeons, which are classified as a "pest species".

As someone who owns and breeds racing pigeons I find it quite shocking that someone could shoot and dump so many birds.

We loose on average 20 to 30 birds each racing season (from April to September) and we know that a % of them go feral due to not being able to find there way home, others are chick food for the raptor species and then we have the ones that fly into obsticles ie: windows, wires, trees etc.  Shooting is getting more common as we have birds coming back to the loft where we have to take out pellets and treat the bird as best we can.  My second year looking after the birds I had to destroy a young pigeon who had been shot flying round the loft and came in with a hole in it's chest and half a wing missing due to someone shooting it.

If you find any pigeons alive or dead with rings on there legs feel free to contact us via www.homingpigeons.co.uk .

if they are woodies then the farmer or person growing crops there, has every right to shoot them as they massacre the crop. We have shot 200 on a good day!! Most  have a market for the carcasses, but in some areas they are in such plague proportions that maybe they took all they needed and left the rest. it would be good practice to dispose of them though. Were they left on a public footpath? or on private land? Were you walking on a ROW?

The way I read it they were actually dumped on Jewels land.

yes on re reading it I think you are right, sorry I dodnt notice that bit! Certainly not a good idea to put them on someone elses land!!

Yes they were actually dumped over the fence onto our own land :-( 
Surely they cannot just dump piles of dead bodies on other peoples property though. There must be some sort of rule/law against it and if you choose to shoot creatures for a hobby or whatever reason then you must have to dispose of the bodies correctly ??  I obviously live in the country and have had to learn to live with the fact that the farmers here seem to delight in shooting everything that moves but this is one step too far  :-(

Although I see woodies as flying rats like Newfiedreams does, what would concern me is that the bodies dumped on your land?

I would be having serious words with Farmer Giles about that. Ok so Farmer Giles has shot the birds because of what they do to his crops and fair play to him but he could have the decency to remove them and not dump them on somebody else's property.

If I were you I would be wanting to have a word in his ear. Putting aside the emotive bits about innocent animals and children and dogs, I would be checking with the local PC Plod, where do you stand on somebody dumping what can eventually be a health hazzard on your land?

Of course back in days gone by we had falconers and woodies were eaten and their numbers kept under control, now the little demons just reproduce like mad because we supply such good living for them.

I don't know anything about the laws on the this type of thing so that's where I would start 'with the law', have a chat with them.

I would question whether it was the farmer or a "poacher".  They lamp out the back of my house but im sure its not the farmer as they drive the quad through the crops rather than sticking to the tram lines.

Poachers take home what they shoot. It sounds more like a farmer killing what are essentially vermin that ruin crops

Not being funny, but having a Son as a Police Officer and being married to one before, for far too long as it happens! I wouldn't use a term like PC Plod...it assumes all Officers are needing some brains. Some may well do...but not all! ;-)

I would think it terribly wrong to shoot racers, but anyone with a gun SHOULD be able to see their rings...however, as we know there are always some who delight in shooting anything that moves...here in Liverpool that would be cats, small dogs, humans even! I did rescue a racer last year...he landed in the surgery car park and we had a fine old time finding who to report him to! In the end it was a chap up the road! He was a young bird, injured his wing, but safely back to Dad!

>anyone with a gun SHOULD be able to see their rings...

I doubt it - when they're flying it's difficult to even see their legs, let alone whether they're ringed! A racing pigeon looks very different to a wood pigeon, but if it's flying in a flock of other pigeons the scatter-effect of shot will bring it down, even if it wasn't the target.

Sorry newfiedreams it was not my intention to offend, I see that expression as a term of endearment, but apologies if I offended you :)

Unfortunatley alot of pigeons are shot around my house, the farmer pays someone to shoot them ,as there eating all the crops, just the other day looking out my window, there were 100's of birds eating the grain out of the fields.

isnt that the same as fly tipping and ilegal? have you rung the council?

i think the main thing is to determine if its your neighbour or some other party. Certainly my own experience of pigeon decoying is that poeple come from far and wide if they have permission for decoying on arable land for pest control so it may not be the landowner himself. You certainly need to find out before you start laying accusations at his door. Certainly no responsible shooter would do such a thing as it brings the sport into disrespect, so why not mention it to the farmer and see if he has had anyone decoying on his land?

we had a fine old time finding who to report him to!

Same here. I ended up ringing The racing association and getting a home telephone number for the owner who came to collect. It had been a very windy day and I presume that it had just gotten tired. However,  as it had landed in a field and just would not move whatever I did i was worried because a) my dogs wanted it and b) I was worried in case a cat got it.

:-) ;-)

95% of the time a racing pigeon lands all it needs is rest, water and some food usually they are off and heading home within 24 hours unless of course it is injured or it prefers your feed to what it gets at home :) LOL

urgh - flying vermin! I had pidgeon once, the whole thing could have fit into my hollow tooth lol

we had something similar recently op - there are currently 4 rotting, stinking decomposing shot foxes in a pile at the bottom of our field, just over the fence, about 5 yards from the road. very nice

> Yes they were actually dumped over the fence onto our own land :-( 
> Surely they cannot just dump piles of dead bodies on other peoples property though.

This sounds to me as though there might have been illegal shooters on the farmers land. Not all poachers take home what they shoot. They might have done so years ago but the illegal shooters around our way leave the bodies dumped in the fields or at the road side. They also ride quad bikes and other four wheel drive vehicles over land they are not supoposed to be on.

We have had a spate of this in the last weeks again. and now we have had several dogs stolen as well. From the last three Dog Watch messages:
1) Two dogs have died and the vet has said that the cause is poisoning.
2) Nine dogs including several puppies were stolen from a Barn at Woolley, Newbury overnight 6-7/4/09.  They were:

2 x smooth coat patterdale terriers
1 x rough coat patterdale terrier
5 x 4 week old patterdale puppies
1 x fawn lurcher female
No further details at present.
Urn 205 7/4/09 FB3314032/09
And
3) Two bitches missing.  Both 7 year old Miniature Yorkie x Jack Russell, white with pinky/brown very fluffy coats.  Both microchipped, neither wearing a collar. Last seen 1.30 pm Monday 6th April at Little Frieth, near Lane End. 

Rural crme is we have discovered in my area usually related, so if there are illegal shooters and vehicles being taken onto land they are not supposed to on we also find dogs and other items like cars tractors and trailors etc get stolen too.

I bumped into a group of poachers out hare coursing with their lurchers whilst walking my boys a few weeks ago - scared me a bit as I was in the middle of no where and they didnt look too friendly - as it happened they seemed to be more scared of me, jumped in their 4x4 and steamed off.  I am on the Hampshire / Berkshire border, I think these guys (from what ive heard) are from the Newbury way.

We used to have a lot of trouble when we lived in East Ilsley...up and away over the Downs, out lamping, total liability with guns!(the rules were very much more relaxed then, back in the early 80's)

Find out who the land belongs to, if its council then they'l remove them,otherwise theres nothing you can do if its private land,
Think of the smell in afew days! errr !!!!!

That's very sad Polly...someone is feeling devastated at the moment...I hope they get them back...

Not wishing to trivialise the situation and it's not a nice find for you but at least they will decompose naturally unlike the 2 washing machines 1fridge freezer, car bumper, tyres, pieces of wood with nails in and household rubbish that is dumped on the forestry commission land where I walk my  dogs.
Like someone else said what a waste my friends and I who don't shoot but work and train our dogs are always looking for cold game for training purposes lol

If they were really fesh I'd have had them in the freezer for the dogs, what a waste.

> Not wishing to trivialise the situation and it's not a nice find for you but at least they will decompose naturally

Very true, if a fox does not find them and carry them off.  Something will extract some goodness out of them even if it is only the flora and fauna.

newfie - they have trouble with travellers at some of the agility shows we have at newbury showground, they have started keeping the gates shut and only allowing people who are entered in.

>Not wishing to trivialise the situation and it's not a nice find for you but at least they will decompose naturally unlike the 2 washing machines 1fridge freezer, car bumper, tyres, pieces of wood with nails in and household rubbish that is dumped on the forestry commission land where I walk my  dogs.

we are always finding stuff dumped on the country lanes and in the woods round here, I dont get it, if people can travel this far out to dump stuff surely it would be easier to take it to the local tip

If you are commercial the tip will charge you though.  Even if you are private but use a commercial vehicle, as we do, you have to get a permit and my local council only allow one a month, which is not a lot if you are doing a renovation for instance.  Some people are just not prepared to be responsible and pay up.

Pigeons here are considered pests and they do away with them... They leave such a mess on our roofs- I do think they are pretty but they do leave alot of mess and they do carry diseases- we try to do things to persuade them from staying and they like to peck at our bedroom window-grrr!!! We have spikes on our chimney and there is a neighbours cat that likes to go on the roof tops after them- just hope it never falls off and gets hurt-

Dog Watch is based in the Thames Valley police region. They received an award at Crufts this year for their activities stopping dogs being stolen and also finding stolen dogs. If any of you lives in the Thames Valley Police region you can sign up to get the dog watch mobile phone text messages, which come through immediately something suspicious is seen or the emails. To find out more and join the Thames Valley Dog Watch scheme contact: A Dogwatch TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE is now available for the receipt of urgent information. To register, send your mobile number by phone: 07831 675555 or 01491 571353 or e-mail dogwatch@culdenfawltd.com

what that got to do with pigeons???

> we had something similar recently op - there are currently 4 rotting, stinking decomposing shot foxes in a pile at the bottom of our field, just over the fence, about 5 yards from the road. very nice <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" height=10 alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20>

Fox carcasses are left to rot in a bid to see the rest of the family off - well that's why we used to shoot em and leave them hanging on the fences.

This sounds more like poachers than a farmer, usually us farming folk take them home and feed to the dogs once we've taken the breast fillets off for a pie, you'd be amazed how many pigeon breasts it takes to make a decent sized pie for hard working farmers lol

> If you are commercial the tip will charge you though.&nbsp; Even if you are private but use a commercial vehicle, as we do, you have to get a permit and my local council only allow one a month, which is not a lot if you are doing a renovation for instance.&nbsp; Some people are just not prepared to be responsible and pay up.

Isabel, when we were renovating our kitchen we were taking stuff to the tip in my OH's works van (he is a joiner), I phoned the council and explained to them that although it was a works van we were dumping domestic waste not commercial and we didn't have to pay. We have also used the van to put stuff in a local skip (when we had such a thing) and again, I phoned to let the council know in case someone reported us for dumping commercial waste and there was no problem. Might be worth phoning - although the councils seem to have different rules depending on where you live.

> although the councils seem to have different rules depending on where you live.

They do :-) and mine are very strict but they are placed in a National Park so they are pretty hot on all things environmental.  We get three permits at a time but cannot apply for another within three months.

Hi Sam,

A few posts above mine you will see that members mentioned seeing people with lurchers and quad bikes on land illegally. I mentioned Dog Watch because they both live in my area and we have found that activities such as those described and illegal shooting and dumping game are tied in to criminal activities uncluding dog theft. Therefore I thought it would be useful to those two members and perhaps any other members in my area.

Since Dog Watch has been running we have had reports of hares, rabbits, deer and pigeons being coursed or shot and the carcases being dumped. While these activites have been going on in the area we have also seen an increase in stolen property especially in rural areas, everything is a target, from tractors, trailors, houses have been burgled and dogs have been stolen.

While it may not have anything to do with the op's topic of the dumped birds, passing on any information which might stop a dog being stolen is surely a good thing, and might alert others to the connection so that they may take extra precautions with their own dogs.