Every year, we spay/neuter thousands of dogs and cats. We even spay/neuter dogs and cats for the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control. Our mantra has always been spay, spay, spay, and then spay some more.

But what about birth control for pigeons? Of course we don’t advocate actual surgery, but recently the San Francisco Animal Control & Welfare Commission, appointed by the Board of Supervisors, proposed the development of a "birth control pill" which could be mixed with bird food and served to pigeons in order to bring down their populations.

The media calls came flooding in—from the San Francisco Examiner, the Wall Street Journal, even television crews descended down on The SF/SPCA like a flock of, well, pigeons—to ask us what we thought of the idea. We weren’t convinced that there even is a pigeon overpopulation problem but we didn’t make that argument because while we were talking with the cameras in the parking lot of Maddie’s Center, we were surrounded by, you guessed it, pigeons. And we didn’t think sharing our belief that pigeons are lovely and fascinating, but misunderstood birds would fly. But we did tell them we didn’t think it was a good idea.

As David Letterman likes to say, the top ten reasons birth control-laced pigeon food is a bad idea are:

10. Feeding pigeons is against the law in SF, the Board of Supervisors should not violate their own laws;

9. It is a waste of money because development would be costly and the chance of success remote.

8. If it doesn’t work, feeding pigeons would increase their numbers.

7. To make it safe would require extensive testing followed by killing and autopsy which we cannot support.

6. Avitrol was a pigeon drug that was extensively tested and proven to be safe but when given to pigeons via food baits turned out to be lethal.

5. There is no proper way to dose pigeons via food baits.

4. There is no way to protect other animals, including human children, from coming across the food and eating it with unknown consequences.

3. Pigeon proofing is a cost-effective, permanent, and humane solution to pigeon "issues".

2. There is no documented health risk to humans from pigeons in San Francisco.

1. And the number one reason we think a food-based birth control for pigeons is a bad idea: pigeons are as San Francisco as cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge.