Every year, the Royal Belgian Pigeon Fanciers’ Association asks its members to loft all racing pigeons in Flanders and Wallonia around the end of December. During this period, they call on the hunter and game warden to regulate feral pigeons.
Racing pigeons or house pigeons that go wild and are no longer really stable in the loft can easily survive in the wild or in the city. However, they are also out of place here, especially in the large numbers as we know them. They are also seen as a disturbing factor by the pigeon fanciers. From a hunting point of view, these are exotics because they are not a real native species. So this is Regulation and not Hunting or Control. Shooting with the rifle can be done by anyone with an authorized weapon and with a permit to use it. Each Hunter, given his Hunting Leave, can therefore Regulate.
However, the shot pigeons are not hunting game and may therefore not be consumed. Legally, only destruction is allowed.
Below is the full legal context, as put together by our House and Hunting counsel “Tom”. And diligent as he is, he not only gives the answer to the question of shooting, but also to consumption or processing.
And for the sake of completeness, a Commissioner of the Police added an addition on Fauna Management.
Slope
There are a few things to mention about the shooting of unprotected or non-hunting game species.
Feral city/travel pigeons are not a protected species (not included in the Species Decree of 15 May 2009) or hunting game species (not included in the Hunting Decree of 24/07/1991). They are therefore outlawed if they do not have an owner (anymore). The question of exotic or not does not really matter. For example, the legislation offers protection to the Canada goose, which is an exotic species, by considering it as hunting game. The killing of these geese is subject to regulations that do not allow other forms of ‘extermination’ (e.g. poisoned grain,…), in contrast to the Egyptian goose where no protection applies.
Anyone can kill feral pigeons, provided that the landowner has permission (general principle to be allowed to do something on someone else’s land). These pigeons may be killed with traps, poison, firearms or other methods. There are no restrictions on this. This situation is similar to that of brown rats, muskrats, etc.
An important precondition for shooting feral pigeons is that the gun legislation requires that one has a legal reason before using firearms. Hunting is a legal reason to be present armed in a hunting area or also outside hunting areas, for example for the control of corvids. A lawful reason is necessary to use firearms in a garden. The intention to kill feral pigeons is not a legal reason as there is no legislation applicable to feral pigeons.
In order to shoot feral pigeons in gardens, the garden must be part of a hunting area. If the garden is connected to a hunting area and is drawn in the hunting plan and the owner of the garden cedes the hunting rights to the neighbouring hunting rights holder (or is the neighbouring hunting district holder himself), feral pigeons can be shot in this garden during the open hunting period. The open hunting period is the period between the first date of the opening of the hunt (15/08 for the geese) to the closing of the hunt (28/29 February – rabbit and wood pigeon). At the moment, as a hunter, one always has a legal reason to be armed in the hunting area. Outside this period, and even if the garden is not part of a hunting area, feral pigeons can only be shot through reports of combating game or protected species. The control of game or protected species then provides a legal reason to be armed. It is also important to determine not to shoot in the direction of houses at less than 150m.
Consume or Dispose
The consumption of feral pigeons (just like killing them, etc.) is not regulated by law. The legislation on the destruction of animal waste is not very familiar to me. When enquiring at OVAM, regarding protected species (crows, etc.), it turned out that no legislation applied to the destruction of crow carcasses.
European Regulation 1774/2002 (on animal by-products not intended for human consumption) does not apply to whole carcasses or parts of wild animals that are not suspected of being infected with diseases transmissible to humans and animals, with the exception of fish and carcasses landed for commercial purposes or parts of wild animals used for the production of hunting trophies.
The Flemish Decree defines animal waste as animal by-products, as defined in Regulation 1774/2002, insofar as they meet the definition of waste in the Decree of 2 July 1981 on the prevention and management of waste, with the exception of kitchen waste, food waste, former foodstuffs, raw milk, eggshells and by-products of cracked eggs, honey, shells of crustaceans, shells of crustaceans, contents of the gastrointestinal tract, insofar as it is separated from the gastrointestinal tract, faeces, ova, embryos and semen.
The dead birds you are talking about are therefore not covered by the aforementioned regulations. The best solution seems to us to bury the birds or leave them behind in a non-environmentally harmful way.
We realize that such matters are not included in the legislation currently in force. However, a revision of the Animal Waste Decree is currently being worked on and the intention is to include regulations on hunting practices and nature management.
Fauna management
Some municipalities use a ‘fauna manager’. On the basis of public safety and health, the mayor can order ‘a’ hunter who is in order with everything to exterminate the feral pigeons present on the public domain of the municipality. In that case, that person obtains the status of ‘fauna manager’ for the territory (must be an official decision of the Municipal Executive). This is the same as that of the ‘rat packers’ of the municipality/city with the difference that the fauna manager uses a firearm (pigeons under the bridges and in abandoned buildings or football stands, rabbits on football field, escaped fallow deer in the municipal centre…). In that case, the municipality is responsible for the destruction of the carcasses as is done for cat items found, etc.
The above original text (dated 3 January 2013) was checked with the Agency.
However, in this first text, only the legal provisions were reproduced. In the meantime, back from the ANB, we received a further interpretation. This interpretation tests the earlier text against advancing insight and a deeper analysis of the legislation, supplemented with comments from the field in order to arrive at a clearer interpretation of the legislation.
Regulation – ANB Interpretation
In essence, feral racing pigeons can be considered neither as hunting game nor as a protected species. They are feral domesticated animals (not exotics) that, like exotics, have no legal status. Therefore, in principle, they can be killed in any way possible.
However, there are a few caveats to be made here. It is not because these species are not covered by the Hunting Decree and its implementing decrees or by the Species Decree, that provisions of this legislation do not affect the regulation of feral domestic animals and exotic species.
There are 3 parts to this:
1. The field of action
To carry out such an action of regulation, you are always bound by the explicit permission of the owner of the plot in question (general principle if you want to do something on someone else’s property). For areas in which you have the right to hunt, this is usually considered to be inherent to the agreement (possibly included in a written agreement). With this assumption, the ANB Memorandum of 4 April 2012 interpreted the legislation in such a way that hunters and special constables, can carry out the regulation with the rifle in those areas for which the hunting right has been entrusted to them. We are aware that this is the safety proposition. This memorandum therefore does not extend to the other areas. It is less clear and more legally uncertain. Therefore, no statements were made about this in the memorandum.
2. The use of the rifle
Article 12 of the Arms Act stipulates that anyone who can present a hunting permit or an appointment as a special constable has a legal reason to possess firearms. They speak of long firearms designed for hunting, as well as the associated ammunition. To find out which weapons and ammunition are meant by this, the hunting legislation must be consulted.
Article 15 of the Arms Act stipulates that the persons of Article 12 also have the right to carry and use the weapons.
There are no further grounds for exception to have these weapons and to use them for hunting and wildlife management activities.
So if one wants to use a weapon for hunting and fauna management activities, one must meet
these conditions (hunting permit or an appointment as a special constable).This was also interpreted in the ANB Memorandum of 4 April 2012.
3. Use of other means
As far as the use of means other than weapons is concerned, we have to take 2 aspects into account. On the one hand, the legislation on animal welfare and, on the other hand, the provisions of prohibited substances in the species legislation.
The legislation on animal welfare (law of 14/08/1986) states that the killing of animals must be done according to the most selective, the fastest and the least painful method for the animal.
The legislation on protected species has been drawn up to safeguard all protected species. With regard to means and methods, it has the task of excluding the use of non-selective methods. Therefore, Annex 2 of the Species Decree must be taken into account. In particular, part C with the means of which possession is also prohibited, must be taken into account. The use of these products requires an official derogation permit.
There is no unequivocal answer for the use of the substances determined under sections A and B. After all, the boundaries between the lawful use for feral domesticated animals and the improper use for protected species are very vague. With the current regulations or the lack thereof for feral domesticated animals, it seems to us that only a judge can judge the possible situation that has arisen. Based on the precautionary principle, we therefore advise against using these means.
