Anti-bird netting is often marketed as a humane way to deter pigeons and keep buildings clean. Yet recent incidents in New York City reveal that these barriers can backfire, creating lethal traps for the very animals they target.
The Upper East Side Controversy
At a Yorkville apartment complex, pigeons were found dehydrated, injured, or dead after becoming sealed inside scaffolding wrapped in netting. Witnesses described feathers caught in the mesh and nestlings crying for parents that could no longer reach them. Volunteers with the Wild Bird Fund and local rescuers cut openings to free trapped birds, saving some but finding others already lifeless, according to Patch.
The property owner had installed the netting after a violation for excessive droppings. But when holes in the mesh allowed pigeons back in, resealing the scaffolding trapped them inside. The Department of Buildings eventually ordered removal, calling the setup non-compliant, ABC7 New York reports.
Improper bird netting is trapping and killing pigeons in New York.
A Growing Pattern
Similar cases have surfaced elsewhere. At the Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue subway station, damaged deterrent nets left birds fatally trapped above entrances. PETA notes that poorly maintained netting frequently causes unnecessary deaths when animals are unable to escape.
When these systems enclose existing nests, parents and chicks are separated from food and water. The intention may be nonlethal control, but the outcome is often starvation or injury.
Improper netting creates both cruelty and unsanitary conditions.
Health vs. Cruelty
Property managers cite sanitation concerns, pointing to the damage and mess left by roosting pigeons. Yet activists argue that allowing animals to die slowly in public view is a greater problem. Residents described the Upper East Side nets as traumatic to witness and unsanitary in themselves.
Other Dangers Birds Face
Netting is only part of a broader urban hazard. Reflective glass towers claim tens of thousands of bird lives in New York City each year. The Audubon Society estimates between 90,000 and 230,000 annual collisions, Newsweek reports.
In response, some lawmakers have pushed for bird-safe building materials like fritted glass or UV-coated windows. The Javits Center renovation, which replaced reflective panes with patterned glass, cut collisions by more than 90 percent.
The Department of Buildings has intervened in similar cases.
Community Response
Grassroots networks have stepped in where city policy lags. Volunteers in the New York City Bird Alliance Transporters group patrol streets, ferrying injured birds to the Wild Bird Fund. Their rescues range from pigeons tangled in wire to migratory songbirds stunned by windows. Photographer Travis Huggett, who documents the volunteers, told Feature Shoot that their work highlights an overlooked community saving wildlife in a city dominated by glass and steel.
Doing More Harm Than Good?
Anti-bird netting can work if installed with care and regularly inspected. But when poorly managed, it becomes another hazard layered onto a skyline already lethal to wildlife. Humane deterrents and bird-safe architecture offer alternatives. Without them, urban life risks becoming a cycle of unintended cruelty, with feathered victims caught in the middle.
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