Somebody is poisoning Claremont’s birds.
They have been seen snoozing around town in recent weeks – after it is believed they ate poi- son-laced cereal grain intended for the local pigeon population.
Claremont chief executive Arthur Kyron said the council was receiving phone calls from con- cerned residents who saw “doz- ing” birds around the town cen- tre, and they wanted to know if the council had a hand in it.
“It’s not us doing this to the birds,” Mr Kyron said.
“We don’t have an issue with them. “We have in the past had prob- lems with pigeons in the town cen- tre, but we are not involved in any pest-control operations affect- ing pigeons at the moment.” One central Claremont business owner said he had seen several “zonked out” birds in Bay View Terrace in recent weeks, but was unaware of any initiative among businesses in the town cen- tre to kill off the pigeons.
Mr Kyron said Claremont’s manager of environmental health, Elizabeth French, told him the likely cause of the sleepy birds was a pest-control substance called alpha chloralase, an anaes- thetic agent that immobilised pigeons.
A local pest-control operator told the POST alpha chloralase was a narcotic and a registered product.
A bird that consumed alpha chloralase would soon experience a reduction in body tempera- ture and appear to be dozing.
This made it easier for pest con- trollers to pick up the birds and remove them, before euthanising them in a humane way, the pest- control operator said.
Alpha chloralase was applied to pigeon mix – a variety of grain and cereal particularly tasty to the birds – to form a bait.
The bait was usually moni- tored by pest controllers to en- sure no birds other than the tar- geted birds took the bait.
But it seems this may not have happened this time. suspended at a height that meant he simply knelt, placed his head through the noose and pretend- ed to hang.
But in the performance, the noose had been suspended too high, meaning he had to stretch saw the boy was unconscious, and quickly brought him down from the noose.
He called the school nurse who performed CPR, and an ambulance arrived four minutes later.
The boy’s relatives said they attempted suicide.
The school had phoned the boy’s mother and told her he had been winded, the relatives said.
When she arrived at the hospi- tal to pick up her “winded” son, she was shocked to find the true nature The boy was released from hospital on Thursday with a prominent scar from ear to ear – the mark of the noose.
His relatives said he was mak- ing good progress and expected he would make a full recovery.
