Chloé Roubert
THE PIGEONS OF ST HUBERT
urban wildlife | montreal by chloé roubert
canopies mal ls patterns of consumption pigeons cosmologies of disgust
In the early 1980s, covering the sidewalks of small commercial arteries was seen as an urban solution that countered the threat of malls whose spaces, sheltered from urban chaos and unpleasant weather, took away their clientele. Accordingly in 1984, parallel to the creation of its underground city – a very large downtown mall – Montreal put 20M$ into the construction of a glass canopy over rue Saint Hubert’s sidewalks between Bellechasse and Jean-Talon. If today this iconic structure’s aesthetic hasn’t aged quite as timelessly as urban projects hope to, in the past few years the residents have noticed another by-product that goes beyond outdated looks: the presence of the Columba livia , Latin for lead- coloured dove, formerly known as rock pigeon but today officially listed as rock dove, and commonly called pigeon. As fate would have it, the very construction meant to replicate the human-controlled environment of shopping centres has become a pigeon’s ideal habitat: the glass covering protects from bad weather, the metal beams substitute for its original
Himalayan cliffs and ledges and the netted structure of store signage makes for perfect nesting sites. And indeed today walking on rue Saint Hubert one can feel the birds’ gazes, hear their cooing, see their nests’ twigs tweaking out of signs and on the sidewalks, sometimes near faeces, like residues of an ongoing semi-overt war, the remains of torn-down nests and broken shells. Locals have condemned their presence as a ‘disgusting’ invasion, scaring clients and ruining the neighbourhood’s façades and sidewalks. They claim the situation has become so unbearable that it is in dire need of a radical solution. But in their attempt to exterminate these birds they exemplify Mary Douglas’s dictum that dirt is matter out of place. Indeed to the residents’ great dismay, in the Province of Québec the Columba livia is considered a small prey that requires – like the adorable arctic hare or the notorious red fox – an official hunting permit to be killed, an activity which, even with a permit, remains illegal in cities.
52
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator