Woman’s fight to save pigeons leads to eviction

Martin Kuz

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

The sanctioned poisoning of pigeons at Wilehelmina Mohamed's apartment complex turned her life inside out. Now, alleging that the 60-year-old retiree went too far in protesting the death of the birds, the Las Vegas Housing Authority intends to turn her out on the streets.

Mohamed admits to becoming consumed by her efforts to fight what housing authority officials call the "pigeon control program" at Robert Gordon Plaza, the affordable housing complex where she lives. Her frustration over the policy -- which plaza residents claim has killed hundreds of pigeons and songbirds -- peaked late last month when she confronted Richard Roe, the authority's facility manager of affordable housing.

No one disputes that Mohamed stalked into Roe's office Aug. 27 and threw onto his desk a dead pigeon that had swallowed a corn kernel laced with poison. It's what she said to Roe that remains in question. Roe reported to superiors that Mohamed told him, "You will pay for this. I promise you, you will pay for this."

Mohamed rejects that account. "I never threatened him. I threatened myself. I said, 'If you continue to do this (to the pigeons), I am going to take the poison myself and you won't have me around anymore,' " she said.

"I get too excited sometimes and I was very upset. But I would never threaten anyone."

Whatever the exact nature of the exchange, the housing authority hit Mohamed with a five-day eviction notice Tuesday. That means Mohamed, a six-year Gordon plaza tenant who was honored as its "resident of the month" in January, will be without a home on Monday.

The conflict might strike the casual observer as absurd, insofar as killing members of an overabundant species of birds ranks somewhere below gambling addiction, a high suicide rate and teenage prostitution on the list of citywide woes.

Support from others

Yet in a clash that boils down to public health vs. animal rights, other Gordon plaza residents share Mohamed's exasperation at the unsettling sight of pigeons enduring a protracted death, and they call her impending eviction unjust.

In February, contending that pigeons pose health and safety risks to residents, housing authority officials approved a plan to reduce the pigeon population at the city's 12 affordable housing complexes. The authority's board of directors awarded a one-year contract to Pestmaster Services Inc., a Bishop, Calif.-based company, to handle the job.

The $39,000 pact resulted from concerns that pigeon feathers and nests gum up rooftop air conditioning units, creating both a potential fire hazard and a pungent stench that wafts through apartments. Housing authority officials also heard from elderly residents who complained that sidewalks caked with pigeon droppings present a danger to pedestrians.

Dewain Steadman, chairman of the housing authority's board, said he sympathizes with bird lovers. At the same time, he noted, federal law dictates that the housing authority provide safe and sanitary housing to its residents -- a mission impeded by pigeons.

"They are pests and a nuisance. It's like rats -- if they're in there, you have to get rid of them," Steadman said.

In the spring Pestmaster workers began spreading corn laced with Avitrol on the rooftops at Gordon plaza and the city's other affordable housing complexes. A federally registered pesticide, Avitrol kills 2 percent of the birds that ingest it and is not fatal to bigger animals or humans in the dose administered to pigeons, according to Jeff Van Diepen, president of Pestmaster.

A federal program run through the Nevada Department of Agriculture certifies companies and individuals to apply Avitrol on commercial and private property for the elimination of pigeons and other "nuisance" animals.

Mohamed, disturbed by the poison approach to pigeon control, arranged with housing authority officials in May to trap birds at Gordon plaza and relocate them. The former real estate agent said she released more than 150 pigeons at city parks and that housing authority officials were happy with her work.

Director of Affordable Housing Parviz Ghadiri said otherwise, describing Mohamed's pigeon relocation efforts as "not successful." Housing authority administrators, whose offices at 420 N. 10th St. sit within view of Mohamed's apartment, take no stance on the use of Avitrol, he added.

"The board made the policy. We are following that," Ghadiri said.

Mohamed has witnessed the death throes of a poisoned pigeon more than she cares to recall. One afternoon last week she gently held a bird that had eaten a kernel of contaminated corn. The pigeon's body shuddered as its head jerked from side to side, its beak convulsing open and shut. The silent, futile struggle to live typically lasts four to five hours, Mohamed said.

Hoping to help the pigeons, Mohamed sought the aid of Las Vegas veterinarian Joanne Stefanatos, who taught her how to flush a bird's stomach with water using a small tube attached to a syringe. The technique has enabled Mohamed to save 10 birds, but at least 40 others, including the one she clutched to her chest, have wound up dead.

"Every time I see a bird like this I feel I can never smile again in my life," Mohamed said. "I've never had so much grief. I cry and cry and cry because of this."

Mohamed conceded that rescuing birds has become her obsession in recent weeks, to the point where she keeps the carcasses of two dozen finches in a freezer as evidence that more than pigeons may be dying from Avitrol.

Praise from friends

Still, Mohamed's friends at Gordon plaza, who corroborate her claim that hundreds of pigeons and songbirds have died, groan at the prospect of her eviction -- no matter what she said to Roe.

Helen Neiman, 87, praised Mohamed for sprucing up the complex by cultivating a garden of flowers and bushes, and for driving less able-bodied neighbors to the grocery store and doctor's office.

"She can be very high-strung and very excitable," Neiman said. "(But) I still don't think they should evict her. I don't think that's right. She's done so much around here, helped so many people."

Jane Martin, 67, who has contacted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals about the poisoning of pigeons at Gordon plaza, said Mohamed deserves a second chance.

"This woman is a great lover of birds," Martin said. "Maybe they (authority officials) should've reprimanded her, but I think they could've shown her a lot more understanding. She lost her cool, that's all."

Ghadiri and Keiyonna Watson, property manager of Gordon plaza, responded that despite Mohamed's previous good standing as a resident, her alleged threats against Roe left them little choice. They also said the housing authority has received no complaints from residents at other affordable housing complexes about the use of poison.

"We appointed (Mohamed) resident of the month because we were happy with the work she's done with the garden," Watson said. "But the housing authority does not tolerate any resident harassing a housing authority employee. That cannot be tolerated."

Zero tolerance

On the subject of tolerance, Gordon plaza residents wonder why the housing authority is willing to accept the killing of pigeons when other options exist.

"I get sick when I come across one of these sweet little animals dying," said Jim Hill, 87. "There has to be another way besides poisoning them."

Alternatives to Avitrol include the installation of netting around air conditioning units to prevent pigeons from nesting there. Additional solutions range from trapping the birds and releasing them in the wild to feeding male pigeons gossypol, a cotton seed extract that sterilizes them, Stefanatos said.

None of the alternatives have been tried at Gordon plaza, Van Diepen said, in part because Avitrol offers the cheapest and most practical answer to pigeon removal. He downplayed the number of birds killed, saying pigeons that ingest the tainted corn let out a warning cry to the rest of the flock.

"With all due respect to the people that are concerned about the birds, we're trying to accommodate other folks and protect them from a health (risk)," Van Diepen said.

Cost and convenience almost always surmount regard for the welfare of pigeons when they become a nuisance, according to Tom Smigel, regional manager of the state agriculture department. That explains the tendency to use Avitrol sooner rather than later, he said.

Speaking in general terms, Smigel asserted that with "some people, you can't teach them to do a dirty job positively. They just have to muck it up. Bird control can be done in good ways."

Van Diepen said his company would consider alternatives to Avitrol if he received word from housing authority officials. But in a bureaucratic version of an endless loop, Ghadiri said the authority will defer to Pestmasters on the best way to winnow the pigeon population.

Listening to experts

"We hire the experts to do this," Ghadiri said. "If the experts say this is the best way to do things... what can you say?"

Mohamed will contest the eviction order at a hearing Tuesday in Justice Court. Ghadiri pledged that should the court overturn the eviction, the housing authority will heed the ruling. If Mohamed loses, however, she lacks the resources to pursue further litigation, throwing her future into uncertainty.

"I have no money. I'm $72 short on last month's rent," she said. "I don't know where I'll go. I have no place to go."

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