Pigeon control: as vital as ever

Pigeon control has come a long way, but the wily bird still stays one step ahead, says Tom Payne

- Tom Payne

There have been multiple developments in the world of pigeon shooting. Since the late 18th century, the woodpigeon has been recognised as a potential pest to the arable farmer, a status emphasised when World War II made it imperative to conserve stocks of home-produced food. But the bird was also a quarry favoured by the sportsman who was unable to shoot partridges and pheasants.

In Colin Willock’s Book of the Woodpigeon, Ron Murton — an ornithologist with the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food — notes that, as a result of studies by the Agricultural Research Council (1941-1943), it was concluded that the pigeon problem could be best solved by reducing the total population size. This was based on the assumption that there was a positive correlation between the incidence of real crop damage and bird numbers. Accordingly, the government took measures to encourage sportsmen to shoot the large numbers of pigeons.

One of the main ways in which the government increased the popularity of pigeon control was to introduce a subsidy in 1953 that contributed half the cost of cartridges. This bonus scheme was administered by the divisional pest service of the Ministry of Agriculture. Officials realised the importance of protecting the national food supply as well as providing an extra meat source in the form of the protein offered by shot birds.

The government focused on two main methods of controlling numbers. One was named the lone wolf method, which we now know as decoying. It was named lone-wolf due to it being carried out by an individual shooter. Lone-wolf gunners were regarded as the elite of pigeon shooters and they were the ones with the most effective tactics. This led on to the birth of the professional pigeon shooter.