Politics & Government

Oh Poop! Pigeon Countermeasures Not Working: Report

City device to frighten pigeons from statue having no impact, paper says.

It sure seems like “Civic Virtue” can’t catch a break. The statue, which sits in a park on the border between Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, has been a virtual magnet for everything from political scorn to pigeon droppings.

Now the city is trying to do something about the latter, according to the New York Daily News.

City officials have installed a device that emits a loud, screeching cry intermittently in an attempt to keep pigeons from landing — and doing a few other things — on the statue.

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According to the paper, the device was installed in January and produces sound on multiple frequencies, some audible to humans, some only for the birds.

So far, however, the device seems to have had little to no effect on the pigeons.

Find out what's happening in Forest Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Last year, Civic Virtue became a lightning rod for controversy when Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras andThey also argued that the city was not doing its due diligence to preserve the statue anyway.

Opponents of the removal said the statue was a depiction of mythology and that the women depicted are not actually women, but serpents in disguise.

The statue used to stand in front of Manhattan’s City Hall, but was removed in the early 20th Century.

For more on the statue’s history,


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