VIDEO: Pet pigeons pit business owner against City

Some unconventional pets at Gail’s Switch a Stitch are ruffling feathers in downtown Prince Albert.

The first pet pigeon came to business owner Gail Sakamoto by chance four and a half years ago. Since then, she’s had a soft spot for the birds that many in the city’s downtown consider a nuisance.

Unfortunately for Sakamoto, her practice of putting out feed for pigeons and letting them stay in her attic during the winter violates a City bylaw.

The bylaw lays out fines for feeding wild birds: pigeons, crows, magpies, or ravens. Public complaints have brought bylaw enforcement officers to Gail’s Switch a Stitch a number of times in recent months.

Sakamoto received the first ticket when she, admittedly, had been breaking the bylaw.

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But she’s taking issue with the second she received over the Easter weekend.

According to Sakamoto, she let her pet pigeons out to “go out and exercise, go for a fly, enjoy outside” that weekend and within hours, bylaw officers were there to ticket her.

The solution – ordering Sakamoto to keep her window closed at all times to keep out wild birds – doesn’t seem fair, she said.

“No wild birds come in here. These ones that go in and out of that back window are my pets that I’ve had since babies.”

As a result, she’s decided to fight the second ticket and hired a lawyer.

How it all started

Sakamoto is an animal lover whose first pet pigeon – which her husband named Angel – fell from the attic into a hole in her business’ wall more than four years ago.

After days of hearing what Sakamoto initially thought was chirping from outside, her husband cut a hole in the wall to reveal a baby pigeon with sparse feathers.

Sakamoto kept Angel with plans to let him go once it was warm out in spring.

However, Angel didn’t fly off.

Sakamoto kept him upstairs and would open the window for him to leave, but he always returned.

The next winter, one of Sakamoto’s staff members brought in a partially frozen bird, and in years since she’s gained more pets: among them are pigeons named Chocolate, Pumpkin, Red, and Timmy.

While some have flown out and not returned after winter, Angel and Chocolate always come back.

Recounting the memory brings tears to her eyes.

The entire ordeal – in which Sakamoto said she is being asked to get rid of her pets – has been emotional for her.

“It’s very distracting and interrupting my work and livelihood,” she said.

Bylaws and downtown opposition to pigeons

The bylaw surrounding wild birds exists largely because of complaints from people downtown, said city manager Jim Toye.

Business owners are already concerned about flocks gathering and “pooping all over” the downtown area, he said.

Breaking the bylaw by “feeding them and just making more come to that particular area of our city” is contrary to most voices he hears, Toye said.

The owner of Ted Matheson Men’s Wear – which is next to Gail’s Switch a Stitch – is one of those majority voices.

“The birds are a menace as far as I’m concerned. They leave quite a mess with feathers and other things. So we are not very happy with the pigeons at all,” Fred Matheson said.

He has a business concern as well.

“Quite frankly too, I’m concerned about my roof and any of my air conditioning or heating system up there, I’m really concerned about the condition that it would be in,” he said.

While Matheson says he’s not the person who lodged the complaints to the City, he said “I hope that it’ll be resolved soon.”

Toye mentioned the issue of cleanliness could become a health hazard for someone keeping birds like pigeons as pets, while Matheson had no comment regarding the idea that the pigeons are pets rather than wild birds.

Despite the negative views, Sakamoto insists the birds are much like other domesticated animals.

“You get to know them after a while and they’re little characters,” she said, describing how Angel hops on her husband’s back.

She doesn’t agree with opposition to her pet birds, saying her customers have never had an issue.

“All of my customers I’ve told can’t believe that this is happening to me, that someone is doing this to me over my birds. Because everyone over four years have known I’ve had it, I’ve never really kept it a secret,” Sakamoto said.

“I don’t feel my pets in here are affecting anything and anyone.”

When asked what she has to say to people who consider the birds to be a nuisance in the downtown, Sakamoto said her customers worry more about the social issues of downtown. This includes homelessness, drug dealing, and prostitution.

Sakamoto will return to court next Monday to fight her second ticket.

claskowski@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk