Penang island bird culls jumped 24% in June as the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) ramped up enforcement days before new laws gave courts power to order community service for people who feed birds in public.
MBPP culled 5,495 birds last month — 3,048 crows and 2,447 pigeons — up from 4,424 in May. The council destroyed 59 crow nests and issued 21 compounds under Section 47(1)(g) of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
Amendments to that law took effect on 1 July, allowing courts to impose Community Service Orders of up to 12 hours on individuals convicted of feeding birds, on top of compounds up to RM2,000. Refusing a court-ordered CSO carries fines of RM2,000 to RM10,000.
But MBPP’s own numbers show culling alone is not working. Pigeon captures rose year-on-year: 10,171 in 2025, up from 9,585 in 2024. Crow culling fell from 23,336 to 17,750 over the same period.
The council faces growing pushback. In June, Lawyers for Animal Rights urged MBPP to suspend a shooting operation on 14 June at Straits Quay, Tanjung Tokong and Tanjung Bungah, calling the use of firearms in urban areas “deeply disturbing” and questioning whether any scientific assessment justified lethal force.
“A public notice asking residents to avoid entire neighbourhoods is not a risk-management protocol; it is an admission that the operation endangers the public,” the group said.
The lawyers pointed to non-lethal alternatives used in other cities, including better waste management, feeding restrictions and reproductive control programmes.
MBPP urged the public to stop feeding birds, warning that the practice drives uncontrolled population growth, dirties public spaces and raises disease risk.
Source: The Star, NST, Free Malaysia Today
