City pigeons are also legally protected, but in exceptional cases the KVR grants a shooting permit – especially if there is a risk to health.
Between 150 and 300 pigeons are killed every year by shooting in Munich. This emerges from a response from the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection to a request from the Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt district committee. City pigeons, like all animals, are protected by the Animal Welfare Act, but there are exceptions where the district administration department gives permission for the shooting.
Pigeons can be classified as pests – only this classification justifies targeted control – if one of five conditions is met: if there are more than ten animals on 100 square meters, if there is a specific health risk, if occupational safety is endangered, a high economic one Damage occurs or if it is a listed building.
For a total of 21 commercial locations in the city, the district administration department issued permits for pigeon control by shooting between 2015 and 2021, in six years 1236 animals were killed in this way. In the main station, which had a pigeon house on the roof in the past few decades, no pigeon was shot. According to the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection, no shooting permit was issued for Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt from 2015 to 2020.
Mostly the reason given for the pest property was the “preservation of food safety”. This applies, for example, to food manufacturers where pigeons nest and there is a risk of feces and feathers getting into the food. The authorities also assume that there is a health risk for humans when pigeons nest “en masse” in the area of old people’s homes, schools or day-care centers. Old and young people are at risk because their immune system is weakened or not yet fully developed.
According to the statistics, the safety of passengers or workers was endangered in some companies in which animals were released for shooting, as pigeons there could have caused electric flashovers or the failure of braking systems. There were not a noticeable number of monument problems with pigeons, at least these are not listed in the statistics of the department. And only in a few cases has a disproportionately high damage caused by pigeons been proven.