Vicky Prest spends her time on the steps of Castle Square in Sheffield helping injured birds. She is a volunteer with Sheffield Stringfoot Pigeon and Bird Rescue, a group that responds to up to 10 callouts an hour through Facebook.
Stringfoot is a condition affecting pigeons where hair and thread collect around their feet. Prest treats the condition by carefully cutting away the tangled material with nail scissors. She explains that litter causes pigeons to end up with things like hair wrapped around their feet, which can result in the loss of toes, feet, or entire limbs.
How the rescue group operates
When someone finds an injured bird in Sheffield, they can post the location in the Facebook group. Prest or another volunteer then attends equipped with supplies to rescue the bird.
Prest runs "Stringfoot Sundays" where volunteers learn how to safely capture, de-string and release pigeons. Her other main responsibility is rescuing and transporting injured birds. She says she enjoys "the adrenaline of going out and rescuing birds that are in distress."
One of her most challenging rescues involved a duck called Trevor, which had a condition called angel wing. Prest had to use a ladder to descend into a canal with no steps, balancing on a pile of rubbish. She waded through freezing canal water for nearly three hours before retrieving Trevor, who now lives in a sanctuary.
Attitudes towards pigeons
Susan Joyce of the National Pigeon Advocacy Association says pigeons have a poor public image. "These are birds that have been domesticated and loved by humans until about 150 years ago, when we didn't want them anymore, so we just abandoned them," she says.
Prest says her group "suffer from an awful lot of abuse from the general public" when string-footing or rescuing pigeons. She points out the contrast in how people respond to other animals: "If that was a kitten or a dog, people would be immediately jumping to action, however, because it's what they consider flying rats, people don't really care as much."
Joyce believes attitudes towards pigeons are changing, particularly among young people who feel a connection to caring for the birds.
