Photo submitted with lawsuit
Some millennials who grew up with Nickelodeon might fondly remember the “Pigeon Man” episode of the classic cartoon, “Hey Arnold!” But a certain Upper East Side tenant is taking her love of the urban birds a bit too far for her landlord—and is being sued for $50,000 over her refusal to stop feeding them.
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A Friday report by the New York Post revealed that 46-year-old Sharon Amran, a French-Israeli restoration artist, is facing legal action because of the large volume of guano coating the awning of a ground floor commercial tenant–a dry cleaning business–at her East 78th Street building.
The lawsuit, 1496 Second Avenue Realty LLC v. Sharon Amran, was filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“Defendant has and continues to feed pigeons from her Apartment which causes them to defecate all over the Building, the awning of the commercial space in the Building and the sidewalk below,” the lawsuit states, adding that she’s received “three violations from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene” which have led to fines totaling $3,000.
Photo submitted with lawsuit
“People are complaining all the time. It’s not sanitary” landlord Salvatore Gaudio said, according to The Post, adding that the issue began about five years ago and that he’s paid fines to the city on multiple occasions over the pigeon poop.
“I don’t care about the money,” Gaudio told the Post. “I’m worried about tenants’ safety.”
Amran, meanwhile, defiantly told the paper that the whole thing is “bullshit.”
According to the NY Post article, Amran was also the person who hung signs in her window which read “Flat Gaza NOW” and “Kill Them All” back in November 2023.
East Side Feed reached out to Amran via her Instagram for comment, but has yet to hear back.
If she loses, maybe have her clean it all up?
It is decades past time for the City Council to pass a law making pigeon feeding illegal. We all suffer, including the pigeons, who breed to unsustainable levels. Ask the humane societies, it’s bad for the birds! Psittacosis, asthma, ruined cars and buildings. When bird flu arrives in NYC the health dept will be forced to exterminate these birds en masse, or we will all get bird flu. Let stop the misguided feeding, and allow a healthy natural population.
Simcha Felder proposed sensible laws 20 years ago. He gave up when “I don’t see dirty streets” DeBlasio was elected. It’s time to try again.
Well said! The bird seed also attracts and feeds rats. Last week, at Carl Schurz Park, the benches had to be cleaned by park employees. They were using something that looked like a mini floor buffer to get it off. Living in this city is feeling more and more like punishment.
Just before covid, an explosion of the local pigeon population led to many birds attempting to nest around my windows and fire escape. They were all over the neighborhood. Neighbors explained that a guy was leaving open 5 lb bags of rice on the corner of 100 and Manhattan to feed birds. The birds roosted mainly on adjacent rooftops, but there was spillover into Central Park and nearby buildings, including mine.
I even found a company on the West Coast that sells bird birth control systems to limit bird populations. NYC animal control replied that spreading feed laced with a birth control agent to stop the pigeon population explosion would be illegal, and there was nothing I could do.
I asked my neighbors if they thought we might influence the bird feeder and they replied, “no es malo, es loco” (he’s not bad, he’s crazy). Seeing no way forward, I withdrew and handled my personal problem by installing spikes and reflective tape on my windowsills that deter birds from landing. They worked well enough.
Recently (several years later), new rice bags stopped appearing, and the pigeon population subsided.