Pigeons disappear from Maria Hernandez Park in Brooklyn, and an artist says she knows why.
New York fixture Tina Piña Trachtenburg – better known as “mother pigeon” for her characteristic feathered dresses – ran back and forth on Saturday 24 May for a Bushwick Pet Store with a surly expression. She was wearing a large painted banner with a message: “She cut their wings, put them in a slingshot and shoot them.” A small group of animal rights activists, who call themselves ‘devoted’ and ‘Pigilantes’, joined the procession at Tratchenburg.
Trachenburg, a representation and soft sculpture artist dedicated to the pigeon shape, claims that the owner of the Pet Supply Store Broadway Pigeon and Pet Supplies kidnaps the birds from the parks of the city and illegal Sell them to shooting ranges in Pennsylvania, where practice still has to be banned. The owner of the pet shop, Michael Scott, Trachenburg claims, takes people to catch birds, which he sells for $ 4 to $ 6, according to her own investigations. On Saturday, demonstrators held drawing that Scott told to ‘get away’.
Trachenburg acknowledges that she has no definitive evidence that Scott or someone from Broadway Pigeon and Pet Supplies is behind the disappearances of the pigeon, but claims that she has found nets in the store, seen videos of non -created networks and spoken with people she said through the store to capture the birds. Hyperallergic made reasonable efforts to get a remark from pigeons on Broadway; When entering the store, a man hurled in profane insults and made a physical threat. Michael Scott has All allegations refused.
Heidi Prescott, vice -president of companion animals for the Humane World for Animals organization, formerly the Human Society of the United States, said Hyperallergic That the Bushwick Pigeon Store has a ‘past history’ of selling birds to brokers who deliver living pigeon shutters.
Last month, a productive pigeon lake was arrested for bragging birds in Manhattan and accused of animal abuse -related violations after he was found with 25 chopped pigeons in his vehicle, said the New York Police Department (NYPD) Hyperallergic. A spokesperson for the office of the public prosecutor in Brooklyn said that no cases of pigeons have been persecuted in recent years. NYPD refused to comment on whether Michael Scott or the pet store was investigated.
Pigeon shoots are illegal in New York City and the nets of the birds are considered animal abuse. In the past, the Animal Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association has encouraged Pennsylvania legislators to ban the practice, with the argument that the New York birds were caught illegally and transported against the laws of the state of the state. Pennsylvania is the only state that allows ‘organized pigeon shoots’, according to the Legal Defense Fund for Animals.
Regardless of who is behind the recent disappearances of the pigeon, Tachenburg says that she will not stop arguing for them. In the 1980s, the artist moved to New York City from San Antonio with the hope of making a living by making art in some form, she said Hyperallergic. When she first moved to the city, she was interested in observing street birds, a hobby that led her to make bags and sculptures, formed to urban animals for a living. Trachtenburg has also illustrated and written a children’s book and organizes a puppet show on her YouTube channel.
Both parents of Trachtenburg were artists of Mexican descent, a heritage that informs her dresses. Mexican folk art, including the image of our -lively woman from Guadalupe and religious iconography, is one of her inspiration, said Thattenburg.
“I don’t enjoy going to museums or galleries,” Torenburg said. “I love [art] When it’s on the street. I love someone who has a pile of paintings, and they are on the street. I like a performance that is on the street. I like that it is spontaneous and not predictable or sterile. “
Nine years ago, said Trachtenburg, a herd for which she took care of Washington Square Park was scored and she held a wake for the birds. Animal abuse Wet enforcement became involved, Troachtenburg said, but the case did not go anywhere. It was then that she said she went “undercover” in the pet store of Michael Scott.
She dressed as a nun, entered the store and let Duiven out of the back door, said Trachtenburg. Soon the store went up, she said, and she never did it again.
The husband of Tachenburg, Jason, who works in the theater world and wore an identical pigeon dress during Saturday’s protest, said Hyperallergic That the action outside of Broadway Pigeon and PET supplies was a mixture of ‘politics and entertainment’.
“If it is not visually exciting, nobody wants to see it,” Jason said.
A visually disastrous scene actually unfolded. At one point, the Sean Paul’s pet shop shot “I don’t fuck with you” on speakers opposite the demonstrators. During the song, a man – an apparent proponent of Scott – left the store with a box of live pigeons with the label “Basura” (“Trash” in Spanish). Various reporters, including two documentary crews, have recorded at any moment.
The PET Store supporter then continued to remove it from the box and kiss, while animal rights activists – some dressed in bird copums – demanded to know where he would bring them. The man said he brought them to his house in the Bronx. Obscenities were thrown in both directions. The pig Wore chicken hats, wore pigeon dolls and held plates that worship the urban beings. Scott supporters wore their own signs and accused the proponents of the pigeon of beating the reputation of the store.
One of the most vocal demonstrators was Isabel Keener, who said she met Trachtenburg while she directed a film that required a herd of pigeons for a climatic romance scene. Trachtenburg had trained a herd of pigeons in Maria Hernandez Park to flutter on Cue, but when the crew started filming a second take, the birds were almost disappeared.
“There used to be 200; I’m going [back] And there is about 30, “said Keener. Another demonstrant, Max, a tattoo artist and good friend of Trachtenburg, showed Hyperallergic Mother pigeon-inspired flash ink designs. Many of the demonstrators were Friends of Trachtenburg or friends of friends.
The group promised to return in the coming weeks.
“I prefer to sew, and quietly live my peaceful pigeon,” said Trachtenburg Hyperallergic In an interview prior to Saturday’s protest. “This is not what I expected to do at this point in my life, but I do it because we can hopefully have an impact.”
