Bengals Want To Go Hunting

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POSTED 8:11 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2007

BENGALS WANT TO GO HUNTING

There's a bit of a pigeon problem at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.

As it turns out, the pigeons have been dropping their business on fans, and in their food and beverages. (We presume that no version of the five-second rule applies when something like that happens.)

The Bengals have a low-tech solution to the problem. They want to shoot them. With guns.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Eric Brown, the managing director of Paul Brown Stadium Ltd., has suggested hunting the pigeons as a "cost-effective way to get this problem under control."

Fan noise on game days used to drive the pigeons away, but the birds have adapted. The bang-bang alternative, per Brown, "would be done discreetly during times when there is little activity in the stadium."

Look, we realize that it's a problem that needs to be solved. But at a time when the NFL is still reeling from the fallout of the Mike Vick case, which involved fighting dogs to the death and the killing of dogs that were deemed unworthy of fighting to the death, shouldn't the Bengals exhaust every other possible option before suggesting the killing of the birds?

That was followed today with:

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In response to Thursday night's item, courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, regarding a request by the Bengals to go Carl Spackler on the pigeons that are pooping on the patrons of Paul Brown Stadium, PFT Planet has responded.

Apart from the usual (and funny) smart-ass remarks, such as "maybe they can borrow the guns from the players," several readers have pointed to an option that has not yet been mentioned by the team -- hawks or other predatory birds that will keep the pigeons away, or subject them to the realities of the food chain.

It's not enough to keep the pigeons away permanently, but it would be an effective game-day device for replacing mass amounts of pigeon poop with a periodic plop or two from the hawk patrol.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm