As of May 7 feeding pigeons in St. Mark’s Square will be illegal and tourists found guilty of feeding their feathered friends will have to cough up a fine of 50 euros ($78).
The mayor’s office has placed a ban on the sale and distribution of grain to feed the birds as they hold it responsible for attracting the pigeons and their droppings, according to a report by eTurbo news.
The ban has raised the ire of the grain vendors who find themselves out of a job. “Thanks Mr. Mayor for killing off our business after 100 years of sales,” read one banner, according to the report.
The pigeons are also being accused of eating away at the city’s marble statues and buildings by pecking at small gaps in the facades to reach for scraps of food that were blown inside. One study estimated that cleaning up monuments and repairing the damage cost each Venetian taxpayer 275 euros a year.
A vendor told Italy’s ANSA news agency that the birds aren’t doing any real damage to the monuments and that the authorities simply wants to get rid of the pigeons and the grain-sellers.
The battle against the birds is part of a broader campaign to clean up Venice which is a Unesco World Heritage Site and welcomes more than 1 million tourists a month.
Report by Chitra Mogul
