Tag Archives for Canada

Planned pigeonhood: Pigeon birth control program set to expand in Toronto, to deal with overpopulation generating too much birdshit

Yeah.

Many Toronto residents won’t be taking anymore crap — from pigeons.

“I live here, right across the street, and the pigeons are a nuisance,” said Richard Evans, as he pointed to a condo building at Yonge and Finch.

“They line up on this wire here across Yonge Street, hundreds of them. They have a habit of going to the bathroom on the road and on cars.”

Evans says he hasn’t been ‘lucky enough’ to be used as turd target by pigeons before, but that he hears a lot of concerns from those with balconies on their condos.

These concerns have been heard loud and clear by Esther Attard.

“(Residents) can’t use their outdoor space, well, because of excrement,” said the chief veterinarian and director of animal services for the City of Toronto.

“It can be a public health risk, but that is a low risk. We haven’t had any of these issues.”

In its quest to find solutions, Attard says a humane option stood out: putting pigeons on the pill.

Ovocontrol, produced by Innolytics LLC, is a contraceptive for pigeons that is made into wheat-flour kibble.

Dubbed ‘planned pigeonhood’, the kibble is put into a timed, automatic feeder and placed on several rooftops in urban areas.

Plan for airships to fly cargo in Canada’s far north

Neat.

Nunavut’s biggest airline is taking its first step toward launching airships in Canada’s North.

Canadian North president and CEO Michael Rodyniuk signed a memorandum of understanding with the France-based company Flying Whales, which has an office in Quebec, at the Paris Airshow in late June. 

“We decided that we were going to work with them to be able to help them develop an aircraft that’s going to be able to fly in the Arctic and [Canada’s] North,” Rodyniuk said. 

Canadian North hasn’t contributed any money to Flying Whales and the project is only in the design phase. The earliest that design will be complete is 2025. It will need to be approved by Transport Canada. 

“I think the partnership that we’ve created is really interesting because you’ve got an operator helping in the development stage of a new … airframe that’s going to be a game changer in the North,” Rodyniuk said. 

For its part, Flying Whales described the agreement in a news release as something to be proud of. It said it hopes Canadian North can provide it with a better understanding of what’s needed — and what challenges lie ahead — for transporting cargo to remote areas of the North.