Old Woman Scatters Her Poisons and 100 Pigeons Fall Dead in City Streets

New York, Aug. 11 — (UP) — Detectives fed the public pigeons today, looking for the old woman carrying the big hand bag and leading a little dog, who, with poisoned seed, slaughtered more than 100 of the city’s “feathered friends.”

At first they had believed they were dealing with a person perversely cruel, but their investigation revealed that for every ardent pigeon lover there was at least one bitterly vindictive pigeon hater. This latter class while deploring the method, could sympathize with the motivation of the old woman who caused dead and dying pigeons, their breasts bursting as their bodies swelled from poison splattering their feathers with blood, to drop out of the sky in a six block radius of upper Broadway yesterday.

These persons were convinced that after years of suffering indignities from pigeons, one pigeon had gone too far with her and made a scourge for his race. They so told the detectives from the police and the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals who mingled with the persons who daily feed the swarms of pigeons in the parks and squares, believing that the old woman hated enough to try poisoning another flock.

New York pigeons have been pampered by cliff-dwellers who rarely see any other specie of bird, and are of incredible boldness. They descend in clouds on any person who looks as though he might be a food-bearer. They perch on the roofs and window sills of buildings facing the parks, and many wary pedestrians carry their hats in their hands while passing.

Yesterday’s massacre occurred in the tiny, triangular park surrounding the statue of Giuseppe Verdi. Facing it are the Ausonia Hotel and a number of apartment buildings. The management of the hotel and of all the buildings have repeatedly complained about the pigeons. Though they abhorred the wanton cruelty the old woman displayed, they told the detectives that the birds were a public nuisance.

The detectives found a young woman who returned home one night to a half dozen pigeons roosting on the head of her bed. She had to change the bed linen before she could retire. There was another who, having placed salad for five on the table, returned to her dining room from her kitchen and found pigeons busily pecking away on her china. The hotel management said their guests always were complaining about pigeons flying in the windows and, occasionally, purloining small objects. It was necessary, building managers said, to scrub window sills several times a week.

Pigeon lovers swamped the police with demands for the prompt apprehension of the old woman. There are so many of them that during the winter months, a telegraph company does a good business hiring out messengers to scatter feed in the parks. One of the most distinguished is Nikola Tesla, the inventor. In winter he has a messenger feed the pigeons daily in several parks.

The old woman fed the pigeons straw-colored pellets closely resembling bird seed, but actually a widely sold rodent exterminator which contains strychnine. The poison gave the birds an inordinate thirst. Water caused their bodies to swell. Their bodies, dropping out of the sky, littered sidewalks and streets and building roofs, and some narrowly missed passing pedestrians. Police gathered more than 100 bodies.