Pigeons dying in downstate Ill.

ALTON -- Alton is turning into a roach motel for pigeons: They check in but they don't check out.

"For about a week now, there have just been dozens of pigeons dying a slow death in downtown Alton," said Russ Smith, president of Downtown Alton, Inc., a business-owners group. "Obviously, they are being poisoned."

Smith said he's seen dead pigeons on the sidewalks and in the streets. Obviously sick pigeons have been staggering like drunks at closing time and Smith's even found them thrashing about in his herb garden.

And when people try to shoo them away, Smith said they act more like sitting ducks -- not even bothering to take off when someone tries to whisk them away with a broom or when they're confronted by dogs.

Smith has seen what he calls unexplained deposits of hard corn kernels around town, which leads him to believe all the more that someone is poisoning the birds. Then there was the men he saw hop out of a truck, scoop up dead pigeons and driving off -- all before he could get close enough to read the name on the side of the vehicle.

So far, nobody has claimed responsibility for the pigeon deaths and no stool pigeon has come forward to rat out someone else.

All Mayor Don Sandidge knows is that nobody at City Hall has authorized this apparent hit on pigeons, and he doesn't know of anyone who got a permit to do it.

It's the same story from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which is investigating the case, and even sent an agent to collect pigeon bodies for testing on Monday.

Smith said there's no real need to kill the pigeons, not after the city replaced tall Bradford pear trees with smaller trees that discourage roosting.