Park Slope Pigeon Serial Killings & Nastiness Blowback
There are several emails and communications to report in the Park Slope Pigeon Serial Killings situation. On Thursday night, the Brooklyn Paper published a story by editor Gersh Kuntzman--who had covered Park Slope pigeon killings in the 1980s. Several emails have subsequently hit our inbox. Two of them are from the "Pigeon Advocate" (PA) who has long been at the center of the feather storm, feeding the neighborhood pigeons and posting the recent fliers about the killings. One email was written by Mr. Kuntzman and forwarded by the PA. The first email from the PA said she had only agreed to help with the Brooklyn Paper story "on the strict terms that he would not publish my face" and said that the paper had violated that agreement by publishing a photo showing her with individuals involved in the nasty little dispute on Eighth Avenue.Mr. Kuntzman's forwarded response, in part:
You said take the picture off the website. It has been done...My goal was NEVER to violate my agreement with you — and to the extent that you feel I did, I am sincerely sorry. I believe I have made it better by removing the photo, but that's your call. As the editor of a COMMUNITY weekly, my goal is NEVER to alienate the people I interview because, indeed, they are also my readers, critics, fans and sources. As a Park Slope resident, I am very committed to the notion of community, so I am very sorry to have disappointed you in this respect.In addition, we got two personal emails. Here are excerpts from one of them:
As it stands I have been notified that I will be invited to a forum (if it materializes) where arguments (on both sides) will be heard. If not for your posts, this would not have happened and I am sincerely grateful...Albert Schweitzer said -- you can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its animals – and so, it is my sincerest motivation to continue to be kind to any and all animals that happen to cross my path. I do my best to treat humans with kindness as well – although it becomes a little more difficult given what they are capable of doing.Even if the Park Slope issue goes dormant, the bigger pigeon feeding issue, will probably stay in the news.
[Photo of an injured pigeon named Broadway with a splint courtesy of the Pigeon Advocate]
Labels: Animals, Park Slope
posted by rsguskind at 9:30 AM
5 Comments:
Turn me loose from your hands
Let me fly to distant lands
Over green fields, trees and mountains
Flowers and forest fountains
Home along the lanes of the skyway
For this dark and lonely room
Projects a shadow cast in gloom
And my eyes are mirrors
Of the world outside
Thinking of the way
That the wind can turn the tide
And these shadows turn
From purple into grey
For just a Skyline Pigeon
Dreaming of the open
Waiting for the day
He can spread his wings
And fly away again
Fly away skyline pigeon fly
Towards the dreams
You've left so very far behind
Just let me wake up in the morning
To the smell of new mown hay
To laugh and cry, to live and die
In the brightness of my day
I want to hear the pealing bells
Of distant churches sing
But most of all please free me
From this aching metal ring
And open out this cage towards the sun
-Elton John
Will there be no photos of the forum participants? Curiouser and curiouser.
Pigeon songs. A dangerous topic.
Am I the only one who has been reminded of that old Tom Lehrer song, "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park?" Well, you DID bring it up, Annon.
As something of a comedy scholar (yes, studies include everyone from Shakespeare's comedies to early Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Bob Newhardt, Marx Brothers, Shelly Berman....) The song, "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" was meant as a total farce. The message, from Mr. Lehrer, was actually to show how jaded and cynical New Yokers had become and was meant as a comment on the surge of poisoing that took place in the early 60s.
For anyone who is interested, there are two new blogs by pigeon "loonies"
http://pigeonlovers07.blogspot.com/
and
http://peopleforpigeons.blogspot.com/
For so many of you who hate pigeons and those who care for them, this should be of no interest. For anyone with an open mind, perhaps this will be of some interest.
I have taken the view that the Lehrer ditty would be the perfect campaign song for Borough Park councilmember Simcha Felder, who plays Bottom to the rest of the farcical crew in City Hall's Midsummer Night's Dream. http://www.jenner.org/JennerCommentary/SimchasFinalSolution.html
But then, I generally find the pigeons pretty nifty, and am not so lazy as to mind hosing down my part of New York from time to time (dissolving the little packages of joy left by pigeons; if only toddler-poop were so easy).
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