City pushed for pigeon coup

Each morning the homing pigeons are released, along with bird droppings that coat his roof, solar panels and vehicle.

MrO'Dea said the droppings had ruined the paint on his car and he had to wash his solar panels frequently because they lost power when dotted with faeces.

He also had his security system cables replaced after rats that nest around his neighbour's pigeon enclosure chewed through them.

The City of Swan has received several complaints about domestic pigeon keeping, all in regard to the one property in Ellenbrook.

But there is no local law that prevents residents from keeping large numbers of pigeons and issues such as noise, flies, odour and rats are dealt with by separate legislation.

For example, a noisy rooster would be dealt with under the Environmental Protection (Noise) Regulations 1997.

But if a pigeon is dropping excrement on a neighbouring property, the owner of the pigeon has not committed an offence under current City laws.

Other metropolitan local governments, including Subiaco, Wanneroo and Joondalup, have laws addressing the keeping of pigeons.

MrO'Dea said he had been pushing for the City of Swan to act on the issue for years.

"It's just been put in the too hard basket for too long," MrO'Dea said.

"You shouldn't be allowed to keep pigeons here " fair enough if there were only about 20 or if it was a rural area, but it's not and there are hundreds."

Ellenbrook ward councillor David McDonnell asked City officers to look into the issue at a recent council meeting.

The City is now investigating options to manage nuisances from the keeping of pigeons in residential areas.

A report will be provided to the council at an upcoming meeting.