Health officials and animal rights activists said a Downtown maintenance man who was mistaken for a sniper because he carried a pellet gun to pick off pigeons chose a method that’s inefficient at best and inhumane at worst. The birds might bother pedestrians, but the city’s problem with pigeons is no greater than that in any other major city, said David Zazac, an Allegheny County Health Department spokesman. “I think they’re irritating,” said Steven Harpool, 14, when a clutch of pigeons tottered toward him as he waited for a bus Thursday near Fifth Avenue Place. He flinched, sending the birds scurrying. Police shut down streets and buildings Downtown for two hours Wednesday after people spotted Richard Wills carrying a pellet gun atop Pittsburgh Allegheny County Thermal’s Duquesne Boulevard headquarters, where he’s a maintenance worker. PACT President Robert Fazio later told police Wills had permission to pop the pesky pigeons that had invaded the building. Police Chief Dominic J. Costa said Wills, of Dawson, Fayette County, talked with detectives about the incident, but Costa did not know whether Wills would face any charges. The cost of the afternoon’s police activity — including a heavily armed Special Emergency Response Team — likely will be low because most officers were on duty, Costa said. Overtime costs won’t be calculated until officers submit their hours in a few weeks. The best way to get rid of pigeons is to remove sources of food, water and cover, such as bushes and wires, Zazac said. Sticky repellants can be applied to ledges to make pigeons “uncomfortable.” Zazac doesn’t advocate using poisons or birth control. “With breeding going on in all seasons and different clutch sizes, you’re swimming against the current.” “The method that this man was using was immeasurably cruel,” said Stephanie Boyles, a wildlife biologist for Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “The pellet gun that he was using isn’t designed to kill animals instantly, and in most cases simply maims them.” Pittsburgh’s City Code prohibits firing an air gun in the city except in a firing range or if the projectile is “confined entirely to the user’s own property or the premises of another with express consent.” Violators can face a $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail. City Solicitor Susan Malie said charging Willis depends on whether he fired the gun and whether he pointed it at people. If he did, he could be charged with brandishing a facsimile of a weapon “with intent to terrify, alarm, threaten or intimidate.” “But it has to be a person who’s threatened, not a pigeon,” Malie said.

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