Northern Rail organises repeated shootings of wild birds at Manchester station

Northern Rail have organised the repeated shooting of wild birds inside Manchester Victoria Station in their latest “Bird Management Program”, according to the results of a Freedom of Information Request.

The train operating company contracted Ecolab to carry out the bird culling sessions, which began in October 2025.

Sessions were carried out on a bi-weekly schedule and took place out-of-hours.

Birds were shot using rubber pellets, with many shots made by Ecolab staff causing injuries that were not fatal.

Multiple injured pigeons have been found left in the station by members of the public since bird culling sessions began.

Hours after one culling session, a pigeon was found by a member of the public to be trapped upside down between station fixtures. The bird was taken to a vet, where its leg was amputated.

Another pigeon was found grounded on the day of a cull, with a pellet lodged in its neck.

@manchesterpigeonrehab

*Northern Trains were contacted in advance and said they are reviewing the matter and will respond next week* #animalwelfare #pigeons #rescue #actnow #pigeonsoftiktok

♬ New Sun – Chihei Hatakeyama

Results of a Freedom of Information request made to Northern Rail, and evidence of the injured birds, was posted on Manchester Pigeon Rehab’s TikTok page.

Northern Rail have said that the “Bird Management Program” began to “control the population of birds at Manchester Victoria Station.”

The operator said the bird population was becoming “unmanageable and a risk to public health.”

This comes after Northern Rail urged passengers to avoid feeding the station pigeons in 2024.

A year before the current bird culling program began, the operator shared it had trialled a number of measures to keep birds away from various stations.

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This had included installing fake plastic owls at Morpeth station in Northumberland, playing pre-recorded hawk noises from speakers at Driffield station in East Yorkshire, and smearing the roof of the latter station with “fire gel” – which appears to pigeons as ultraviolet light, making them believe the surface is too hot to land on.

These methods did not lead to significant results, and so Northern began to come up with other solutions to the large bird population at their stations.

The culling sessions were subsequently arranged through ISS Facility Services Ltd, and sub-contracted out to Ecolab.

A Freedom of Information Request submitted by Manchester Pigeon Rehab showed that Ecolab had warned Northern Rail that bird culling efforts would “only yield a short-term result,” leading to the need for shooting sessions every two weeks.

Sessions are two hours long and carried out at dawn or dusk, as this is when the number of roosting birds is at its highest.

Several techniques have been used to “dissuade the birds”, according to Ecolab’s survey report. Methods include lasers and handheld wallers as well as shooting.

Manchester Pigeon Rehab sent evidence of “injured birds and foreseeable suffering” to Northern Rail, which included images of birds found at the station.

Northern Rail did not respond directly to this evidence, but said that Ecolab “follow the GL41 licence to use lethal force against Feral pigeons as a last resort at Manchester Victoria.”

“They have looked at all other reasonable avenues to mitigate the health and safety risk caused by birds and this is a last option,” the operator stated.

Northern told Manchester Pigeon Rehab that the cull was ongoing in January and no reports to the contrary have been made since then.

Northern Rail and Ecolab were contacted for comment.

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