Limburg an der Lahn, in the western German state of Hesse, has just voted to exterminate its 700-strong pigeon population.

A referendum was held on 9 June - the same day as the country’s EU electiiom - after the city council’s decision to kill the birds in November 2023 proved controversial.

Just over 53 per cent of the residents who voted on Sunday approved the killing of the pigeons, Der Spiegel reports, with a total of 7,530 ‘yes’ votes cast.

“Today's result was unpredictable for us. The citizens have made use of their right and decided that the animals should be reduced by a falconer," mayor Marius Hahn (SPD) told the German news site.

This was the method initially proposed by the council last year, and the question put to voters was simply whether the decision should stand or not.

More precisely, the falconer will lure the birds into a trap, hit them over the head with a wooden stick to stun them, and then break their necks.

Animal rights’ campaigners were horrified when the plan was announced. “We live in 2023, it can’t be that we kill animals just because they annoy us, or they’re a nuisance. That’s not acceptable,” Limburg city pigeon project manager Tanya Muller told the UK’s Sky News last year.

The cull is set to be carried out over the next two years.

Fuck them.