North East Animal Rights hold a protest at the Waterville Road rail bridge
Protestors from North East Animal Rights are calling on Nexus to work with them after pigeons get trapped in netting at the Waterville Road rail bridge.
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00:00 We're here today to do a joint forecast, a proposal thought, because we made away of problems with peatlands at this particular location.
00:07 So this is Waterville Road Bridge and Nexus maintained this bridge and we've had lots of problems with Nexus throughout the year.
00:14 We were first made away of issues around Whitty Bay station earlier in the year and we tried several locations to proactively engage with Nexus to resolve what they see as a problem.
00:24 All of our offers of taking the birds to safety were rebuffed and they continue to put in place measures which are injuring and killing wildlife.
00:31 They're using spurious health and safety reasons as a way of justifying who continue to harm the birds.
00:36 And the bridge that we are at the moment, it's not a bridge which people are hanging around and they're literally just walking through it in two seconds or driving through it.
00:43 So the health and safety reasons are pretty spurious.
00:46 Pigeons are not pests. In World War II, these were the most decorated animal because of their contribution to the war effort.
00:53 They're incredibly intelligent birds and they're one of three birds known to make pigeon milk for the babies and they have incredibly strong family bonds.
01:01 We know as rescuers, we've seen the birds actually help each other to try and get themselves out of predicaments like getting stuck in netting as well.
01:07 Nexus say that they are trial and period solutions that we've put to them and that's great, that's really, really good news, but it's not happening fast enough and it's also not happening in bridges as well.
01:16 So we want them to roll us out of the bridges and to look at immediately phasing out the netting.
01:20 Lots of forward looking businesses now are actually working with us and doing exactly that and they are our main alternative now.
01:26 So we want Nexus to stop seeing us as a problem and work with us, help us help the birds.
01:32 We know that Nexus have also got a green award for helping red kites, but we need them to see pigeons as a valuable as well.