The order from 5 days ago
The owners, tenants and licensees of buildings of the municipal territory of Siena on whose facades birds are usually stationed, they will have to ensure the constant cleaning of streets and public places soiled by the deposited guano, until the fulfillment of the provisions of the municipal regulations regarding the obligation to install systems to discourage the stationing of pigeons. This is established by an ordinance signed on Friday 22 December by the Mayor of Siena Nicoletta Fabio. From the results of the monitoring carried out in February 2023 in the historic center of Siena, a numerical consistency of "Columba livia" domestic form (more commonly "pigeon") emerged far exceeding four hundred specimens per square kilometre, a threshold identified by the Region Tuscany as the limit beyond which environmental stress emerges which requires the implementation of limiting interventions, already started on the initiative of the municipal administration.
The deposited guano
“For the purposes of protecting public health, urban decorum and the artistic, historical and monumental heritage of the city, a UNESCO site – we read in the text of the provision – all owners, tenants and concessionaires of buildings in the municipal area on whose facades are habitually nest and/or house birds with consequent soiling of buildings, streets and public places due to the guano that is deposited there, to remove any excrement present on terraces, attics, corbels and in any other accessible place, following up with the intervention by careful cleaning and disinfestation of the affected surfaces. To provide for the constant cleaning of the areas underneath the buildings or structures affected by the presence of pigeons, including public areas and appliances on which the excrement is deposited". As is known, pigeons can host a quantity of pathogens of various kinds that can be transmitted by air, feco-oral, food or through vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, fleas). The health risk increases as the concentration of pigeons in the environment increases because the quantity of excrement emitted increases (environmental transmission).
Animal protection
The ordinance also refers, for the purposes of timely compliance, to other provisions, such as those of article 30 of the municipal regulation on the protection of animals which states that "it is forbidden, throughout the municipal territory, to administer food to pigeons in the state free except for medicated feed, administered exclusively by personnel appointed by the Municipality" and also that "when carrying out maintenance work on roofs or facades in the historic centre, the owners must implement elements aimed at dissuading the stopping and nesting of pigeons in order to prevent them from resting on overhangs, cornices, gutters, post holes and the like". Article 9 of the Municipal Police regulation, however, states that "the owners, tenants and concessionaires of buildings are required to provide for the decent maintenance and cleaning of the facades, shutters, fixtures and external curtains, as well as the dissuasion of the stationing of birds". Failure to comply with these provisions is punished with an administrative fine of 50 to 300 euros, without prejudice to the application of different or additional sanctions provided for by municipal regulations.
A hygiene and health problem
Specific interventions and activities for the containment of birds also within the "Campaign to contain the number of city pigeons" scheduled for the year 2024, the program of which was approved yesterday, Thursday 21 December, by the municipal council on the proposal of the Barbara Magi, councilor for the environment and urban decorum. “We have decided to intervene on a critical issue that many have reported to us in recent months and which concerns a problem of hygiene, health and urban decorum, especially in the historic center – explains councilor Barbara Magi – Naturally the collaboration of citizens is necessary, who must comply with the regulations for private buildings and for the ban on the administration of feed. With the ordinance in place and the planning of the containment campaign, we hope to address the problem with concrete actions to protect the community."
What is planned for 2024
The "Campaign to contain the number of city pigeons" for the year 2024 approved by the municipal council includes a series of interventions and activities: the execution of a new monitoring, aimed at knowing the numerical consistency of pigeons in the urban context, to plan in the months of January and February; kneading through the distribution of feed treated with nicarbazin, purchasing the product from a specialized company and providing distribution in the months from March to October; interventions to combat the presence of pigeons on municipally owned buildings; the activation of any administrative procedures for the execution of interventions to combat the presence of pigeons on private buildings, at the expense of the owners, in case of precarious sanitary conditions; pigeon capture interventions by a specialized company in the months from January to February and from November to December (Siena Municipality Press Office).
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