Pigeon-Feeding Flap Pits City Against a Woman on a Mission

No bird ruffles the public’s feathers like the pigeon.

They helped capture the romance of Paris in Robert Doisneau’s renowned photograph of a young couple kissing. Marlon Brando’s brutish fighter in the film “On the Waterfront” showed his gentle side by caring for some pigeons.

Yet to some people they are airborne pests, a nuisance to municipal officials and others trying to keep streets, buildings and cars clean.

This passionate split over pigeons is vivid these days in Pasadena, fueled by the legal plight of Jacqueline Hagopian--a quiet churchgoing woman with a bag of seeds.

Hagopian, 59, has been charged with violating a city ordinance forbidding feeding pigeons on public streets. The maximum penalty for breaking the pigeon law is six months in jail and a $500 fine. City prosecutors have never pushed for jail time for Hagopian. They say they aren’t interested in subjecting her to a harsh sentence; they just want to uphold the law and keep the city sidewalks clean.

Hagopian, however, has resisted changing her ways.

Each day, the self-described “reborn Christian” emerges from her modest white-clapboard shotgun house to do what she considers God’s work.

She fills a small bowl with cold water and places it, along with some handfuls of birdseed, on the ground beneath a tree planted next to the sidewalk fronting her northeast Pasadena home.

Like clockwork, a familiar flock of about 50 pigeons, along with some interloping doves and sparrows, falls earthward.

“God created each one of them. He used his hands and his time to create them. They were here long before us, and they will be here long after us,” Hagopian said of the birds.

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But what she sees as a flock of God’s creatures others see as carriers of pestilence, capable of spreading salmonella and respiratory ailments.

Such public health concerns prompted Pasadena to ban feeding pigeons on public streets back in 1964.

The city’s anti-pigeon stance is not unique.

In 1994, Glendale considered thinning its prolific pigeon population by trapping hundreds of the birds and killing them with carbon monoxide. The plan was called off after numerous protests.

Other cities, attempting to be more humane, have trapped pigeons and trucked them to faraway areas. One such attempt by San Francisco in 1970 failed when birds died en route and others used their homing abilities to return.

Pasadena’s approach has focused on discouraging public feeding, according to Mel Lim, the city’s environmental health division manager.

Hagopian is scheduled to appear in court on the charges in August, although her attorney, William Dailey, said she might find a compromise with the city.

Dailey thinks officials will be satisfied if Hagopian can lure the pigeons to a public park to be fed.

Tracy Webb, Pasadena’s city prosecutor, said Hagopian’s case is likely to be dismissed if she can limit her pigeon feeding to a park.

It might be possible, Dailey said, to lead the pigeons to an acceptable area with a trail of bread crumbs.

He ought to know. Dailey, who is defending Hagopian for no fee, has his own passion for birds. He keeps 15 pet chickens at his house, some of which he’s trained to perform.

Dailey has argued that Hagopian’s pigeon feeding should be protected by the Constitution as a religious act.

Hagopian made feeding the pigeons her mission in 1976, Dailey said. When she saw a pigeon in the street going after a piece of bread, Hagopian called out to try to coax it away from traffic but was too late. A car ran over the bird, he said.

It was at that moment that Hagopian vowed to God that she would take care of pigeons, Dailey said.

Little has changed in her ritual since. In addition to feeding the birds outside her house, she loads a shopping cart with birdseed and water and walks to three other neighborhood sites, Dailey said.

Hagopian’s first run-in with the law came in 1992, when a grocery store owner turned her in for feeding birds in his parking lot. That case was dismissed because the store owner never appeared in court, Dailey said.

The current charge against Hagopian stems from a 1996 complaint.

Pasadena health officials briefly tailed Hagopian last June and saw her feeding pigeons in a parking lot and on a street corner, according to Dailey. She was charged in August with violating the pigeon feeding ordinance.

Questioned at her house, Hagopian said she did not want to talk about the case.

She declined to say what she did for a living before she became disabled in 1976.

But she fervently stated her opinion of those who would interfere with her mission to feed hungry pigeons.

“They are not harassing me, they are harassing God.”

‘God created each one of them. . . . They were here long before us, and they will be here long after us.’