Presentation short abstract

The paper interprets the pigeon culling in the German town of Limburg as conflicts over the “right to the city” of wild animals. It shows how pigeons, by producing waste, are constituted as waste and rendered killable. Through the construction as societal outside they lose their right to live.

Presentation long abstract

In 2023, the small German town of Limburg decided to cull hundreds of pigeons living there by breaking their necks. This controversial decision ignited disputes that transcended Limburg’s borders and attracted international media attention.

The presentation examines how pigeon waste emerges as a central issue in the political debates surrounding the culling. It interprets these debates as conflicts over the “right to the city” of wild animals. The right to the city, conceived in a multispecies way, must always be considered alongside the more fundamental “right to live.” When the right to the city is denied, animals can easily be made killable.

Empirical research conducted in Limburg reveals how pigeons, by producing waste, are simultaneously constructed as waste and subsequently rendered killable. Public discourse equates pigeons with their excrement that is considered harmful to human health and economic resources. The birds are framed as societal outside, entangled in symbolic associations with disease, dirt, and trash—elements that should be removed from a sanitized and economically productive city. Through the construction as the Other pigeons lose their right to live in the city.

The example of pigeon culling in Limburg illustrates how urban society conceptualizes and governs its relationship to wild animals within a capitalist logic of exploitation, but also how these animals exert agency and claim a right to the city. Since politics of killing are contested by political advocates and the pigeons themselves, they are a starting point for thinking about human–animals coexistence in the city.