For several months now, village officials have been dancing around the proposed Introductory Local Law No. 10 concerning the keeping of animals, which among other things would ban pigeon keeping in Croton.
But those following closely know that the target of the anti-pigeon part of the law is a man named Tony, who recently bought the house at 148 Old Post Road North and who houses about 20 pigeons there. The pigeons, he told the Board of Trustees at its August 19 meeting, belonged to his deceased father, and he says that he keeps them in his father’s memory. Tony added that the pigeons are “blessed by Jesus Christ.”
Tony and the pigeons are also being championed by Nora Regis, a local activist and co-admin of “The Croton Point” Facebook page, where the matter has become a cause célèbre. Regis spoke in favor of the pigeons during public comments at the same August 19 meeting.
The pigeons are opposed, however, by other villagers, most notably the Rosen family, which lives next door to Tony’s house. Allison Rosen appeared at the June 16 meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals to argue that the pigeons should be outlawed, contending among other things that their droppings can spread disease.
In his manager’s report at the August 19 meeting, Village Manager Bryan Healy cited expertise from Cornell University that the risk of humans contracting diseases from pigeons is very low. The agenda documents for that meeting included a number of written comments from villagers, one of whom attached a scientific paper coming to the same conclusion after a comprehensive literature search. That paper, which is more than 20 years old but is consistent with more recent research, did however find that immunocompromised individuals could be at greater risk.
It seems widely accepted among those following the debate that the main targets of the anti-pigeon part of LL 10 are Tony’s pigeons at 148 Old Post Road North. And one house over from the Rosen family lives Deputy Mayor Len Simon, who has made his opposition to the pigeons clear in various quasi-public ways.
The whole matter is due to be aired further at a public hearing on September 2, if that hearing does not get postponed—as perhaps it should be—given its proximity to the first day of school and other return-from-summer events.
The villagers most involved in the debate on one side or the other align roughly with well known political and social groupings in Croton. That means that the controversy is probably about more than just pigeons. But we do not propose to explore that side of things in depth right now. There is a more pressing issue.
Some in the village are calling for Len Simon to recuse himself from discussions and certainly from voting on the issue when it comes around for formal action.
Under the circumstances, we think that would be the wise and ethical course for him to take.
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