NYC Pigeon Flap

With the various pigeon-related plans and controversies of the past week, AllWaysNY looks to the New York Times archives to offer two different historical perspectives on the city’s feathered friends. The 1881 letter to the editor is especially tart in its comments about the mass killing of pigeons: “the natural laws which make decomposition and putrefication of the dead offensive to the living will ensure full punishment for such cruel and bloody outrages against the harmless pigeons.” Click on each clipping for the full text.

Pro-Pigeon: June 27, 1881

Needless to say, Anti-Pigeon: October 19, 1919