Following reports from early July that the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) administration has decided to deploy bird shooters at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport to reduce incidents of birds colliding with airplanes, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent a letter to the Director General (DG) of the PCAA, Flt. Lt. (Retd.) Khaqan Murtaza, urging them to use humane bird deterrents instead.
As per documents available with ProPakistani, PETA’s Vice President, International Laboratory Methods, Shalin Gala, wrote to the DG PCAA on 10 August, stating that “Money spent on shooting or poisoning birds at airports is wasted on an endless killing cycle because when wild animals are killed, more will simply move in to take advantage of the available resources”.
“Effective wildlife-management programs are based on a simple rule: If you remove food sources and make an environment unattractive to wildlife, animals will move on,” he explained and added,
PETA recommends banning the public from feeding wildlife, installing fencing, planting dense vegetation around nearby water sources, and implementing nonlethal scare tactics, such as sonic devices, lasers, motion detectors, scarecrows, or Mylar streamers in order to prevent animals from frequenting an area.
Gala also invite the DG to a discussion on the matter.
Last month, the CAA reportedly ordered both domestic and international flight operators to avoid taking off and landing at Lahore Airport between 5 and 8 AM from 11 July to 15 September.
The resolution was made after failed attempts to prevent bird strikes on the runway after they had affected domestic and international flight operations, resulting in the cancelation of dozens of flights.
Furthermore, the CAA decided to use special chemicals to cull earthworms in the premises of the airport and its adjoining areas and directed the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) to properly dispose of the garbage in the nearby areas.
It also issued the statistics of bird strikes at all airports in the country, as per 622 incidents had taken place in the country, of which 198 had occurred at Lahore Airport alone.
However, a number of media outlets had also reported in July that the CAA administration has decided to deploy 12 bird shooters on the runway during the day and 10 at night to eliminate birds from the airport, which prompted PETA to reach out to the CAA.
