Ken Livingstone under fire over anti-pigeon fight

According to the news agency Reuters, London mayor Ken Livingstone came under fire on Friday over the cost of his efforts to rid Trafalgar Square of pigeons by using hawks.

Livingstone, who famously branded pigeons "rats with wings", banned feeding the birds on the famous central London square in November 2003 and dispatched two Harris hawks as a deterrent, prompting protests from animal rights campaigners around the world.

Some 2,500 pigeons have disappeared from the square since but, according to Mike Tuffrey, Liberal Democrat spokesman on the London Assembly, an estimated 1,000 diehards have stayed put.

Tuffrey said the scheme had cost taxpayers 226,000 pounds since the mayor first unleashed the hawks.

You can read the whole article at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/29092006/80-132/livingstone-under-fire-anti-pigeon-fight.html.

They should leave the pigeon's alone in my opinion, they're part of Trafalgar Square's heritage.