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Fabien Binacchi

Published on Jan 2, 2026 at 6:07 p.m.

Marseille Town Hall, far from the exemplary nature displayed on the animal condition? After announcing the abandonment, in 2023, of controversial methods for limiting pigeon populations, including surgical sterilization and gassing, France’s second city would continue to capture them, warns Paz, an animal rights association. “Scandalous,” she denounces. The town hall responds.

Risk of “broken wings” and “exhaustion”

Despite the creation of an animal welfare charter, in 2024, and the appointment of a special delegation which “ensures respect [de leurs] rights”, the Phocaean community would not respect its “commitments” regarding pigeons.

“In April 2023, the Marseille town hall affirmed […] having stopped killing pigeons following Paz’s revelations” at the time, recalls the association in a press release. Except that, according to documents and even invoices that the municipality sent to him in recent days, the municipality “recaptures” these birds.

“We learned that the town hall is sponsoring capture operations using nets and cages,” says Paz. The captures themselves are violent for the pigeons. With nets, some pigeons are injured (broken wings). With the cages, some die of exhaustion in the cages. In the cages, the pigeons are sometimes abandoned to their fate, without water or food or shelter to protect them from bad weather. »

“There is in no case any animal abuse”

In the second largest city in France, their presence in numbers would raise many problems. On its publicly accessible website, the municipality underlines that “ the overpopulation of pigeons in the city, estimated at 80,000, causes harmful consequences on the environment, such as the degradation of infrastructure and noise pollution, but can also cause health risks. »

Has the town hall therefore returned to old methods to limit the consequences of the presence of these birds? Requested by Marseille newsshe responds in the voice of Christine Juste, deputy (Les Écologues EELV) in charge of the environment, but also terrestrial and animal biodiversity in the city among other delegations. And it is a “don’t” stop, unlike information always available online.

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“Two or three years ago, we stopped all euthanasia and surgical sterilization, the latter can cause heart attacks. There is also no longer any random capture of pigeons,” reaffirms the elected official to our editorial staff.

The cages are possibly used to evacuate and release into the open air birds which have entered municipal buildings, schools, museums or others, we need these cages. They are not used to euthanize or sterilize. Concerning the nets, in eight years, they have never been used. There is no animal abuse in any case.

Christine Juste

“Contraceptive dovecotes”

The city, which also fights against wild feeding, which causes the species to proliferate, in fact has 9 of these “contraceptive dovecotes”. They are notably installed in the 26th centenary parks – Jean-Claude Gaudin (10th), Maison Blanche (9th), Bagatelle (8th), Colline Puget (7th), Chanot (8th), Mirabelle (11th) Borély (8th) and Pastré (8th).

Nine “contraceptive dovecotes” are installed in municipal parks (©City of Marseille)

“These cabins, each made up of one hundred nesting boxes, can accommodate 100 pairs of pigeons », Specifies the City. “They nest and lay their eggs there. And we sterilize one in three by shaking them or covering them with oil. This makes it possible to limit populations without mistreatment,” Christine Juste further praises.

The capture cages can also be used to install certain pairs in these dovecotes, recognizes the assistant. A way to motivate other animals to also take over the area. A process“superfluous and stressful for the birds”,denounces Paz.

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