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Limburg-Weilburg: City pigeons remain unprotected despite applications!
Limburg-Weilburg rejects applications to kill and catch city pigeons. Species conservation and public health are the focus.
Limburg-Weilburg: City pigeons remain unprotected despite applications!
In the Limburg-Weilburg district, a decision by the Lower Nature Conservation Authority is causing a stir: applications for an exemption to kill city pigeons have been canceled. These applications, submitted by the city of Limburg and two private individuals, aimed to remove around 200 of the feathered residents in the city center area. But the project ran into legal hurdles.
As the Rhine newspaper reported, the rejection was based on the Federal Species Protection Ordinance. This protects the city pigeon, and an exemption would have been necessary to kill the animals. The Lower Nature Conservation Authority also found that the applications could not prove that significant economic damage had been caused by the pigeons.
Insufficient evidence
On June 30, 2025, the Lower Nature Conservation Authority examined the applications and found that the economic damage that could have been caused by the pigeons had not been adequately demonstrated. Those responsible saw no reason to intervene as there were no acute threats to public health. This decision is understandable not only in the spirit of animal protection, but also in the context of Section 4 Paragraph 1 of the Federal Species Protection Ordinance.
The legal status of city pigeons is a topic that continues to cause debate in Germany. They are often referred to as “rats of the air”, although the legal regulations provide for their treatment quite differently. This is what an analysis describes schaedlingskunde.de that feral domestic pigeons are not automatically classified as health pests unless there is a specific suspicion of disease transmission. The Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection has determined that these animals are generally not considered to be obligatory health pests.
A different point of view
Despite the doubts about the applications, the discussion about city pigeons remains a hot topic. The applicant special schools and citizens may be able to use other measures to regulate the number of pigeons in the city center. This would also be necessary in accordance with the Food Hygiene Regulation, which emphasizes that contamination by pigeon droppings must be avoided in sensitive areas.
In the past, other approaches were taken in some federal states such as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt to deal with the supposed plague. There, feral domestic pigeons may be classified as health pests. But in the Limburg-Weilburg district, the Lower Nature Conservation Authority is sticking to the line of protecting the pigeons and protecting people from hasty measures. It remains to be seen whether a vigil will be organized for the city pigeon, as some animal protection organizations are calling for.
The decision of June 30, 2025 shows how important it is to treat nature respectfully - but at the same time the balance must be maintained with the needs of the population.