A woman’s grim discovery on the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving Day culminated in felony animal cruelty charges against four people, including two managers of Downtown’s Frick Building, according to police.
Allen Zimmerman, owner of Bird Control Services in Eastern Pennsylvania, his employee, Randall Hoffmaster, and Colleen Derbish and Francisco Escalante, both managers at the Frick Building, all face charges for the deaths of 10 or more pigeons.
All are charged with three counts each of aggravated cruelty to animals, misdemeanor cruelty to animals, summary cruelty to animals and violation of Pittsburgh’s ordinance prohibiting the capture and harm of wild birds.
The discovery of the birds happened Nov. 26 when Cheryl Mosco was driving through the city about 1 p.m., according to a criminal complaint. She spotted nearly a dozen dead and dying pigeons on the sidewalks and in the street near Forbes and Fifth avenues and Grant Street.
Mosco, who rescues and rehabilitates pigeons, pulled over and gathered three pigeons that were still alive. She called Pittsburgh’s Animal Care and Control, but the pigeons died before officers arrived.
A security guard at the Frick Building told Mosco the next day that a pest control company had recently treated the building, according to the criminal complaint. Outside, Mosco found corn scattered on the sidewalk and another pigeon convulsing on the sidewalk.
Pittsburgh Police Officer Christine Luffey spoke to Derbish, the on-site manager of the Frick Building. Luffey wrote in the complaint that Derbish refused to answer any questions and directed her to Escalante, her supervisor.
Escalante, Luffey said, “was very upset that I reached out to him” and told her the situation was “as waste of time for the police department,” according to the complaint. He later told an Animal Care and Control officer he’d hired Bird Control Services to put out poison bird feed to keep pigeons off the roof.
He later told Luffey management had stopped the practice and it “is not worth all the scrutiny, hassling and aggravation.”
“He told me,” Luffey wrote, “’this is a waste of time’ and ‘lesson learned, we’re done.’”
Necropsies were performed on three of the dead pigeons, and their stomach contents contained the active ingredient in Avitrol, a chemical used specifically to poison birds. According to the criminal complaint, building managers at other buildings on Grant and the surrounding streets said they hadn’t used any bird control services recently.
A statement from Allen Zimmerman, the owner of Berks County-based Bird Control Services, noted he’d been made aware of the dead pigeons and “having this large number of pigeons dead and/or dying in one spot is highly irregular,’” according to the complaint.
Officials with Draxxhall Management Inc., the company that runs the Frick Building, said the company did not know Bird Control Services would violate the law.
“At all times, Draxxhall believed that its vendor was operating in accordance with the applicable laws, rules and regulations,” Chief Operating Officer Larry Walsh said via email. “Draxxhall vigorously disputes that any of its employees were knowingly involved in any criminal activity, and looks forward to vigorously defending the charges filed in this matter.”
Representatives for Bird Control Services could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said the poisoned feed could have had even more disastrous results.
“This was an unfortunate way to control the wild bird population in an urban center,” Hissrich said. “Other wild animals or domesticated pets being walked downtown could have easily ingested this poison with tragic results.”
Luffey, in a statement, said she wants this to be a lesson that there are non-lethal ways to deal with roosting pigeons.
“We really want to educate people so that wild birds or other innocent animals are not put in danger,” she said.
Categories: Downtown Pittsburgh | Local | Pittsburgh | Top Stories
March 23, 2021 at 04:18PM
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4 charged with animal cruelty in connection with poisoning of pigeons in Pittsburgh - TribLIVE
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