Blow-darting birds: Pigeon shootings at Livingston underpass spark copycat concerns

LIVINGSTON — At least two pigeons are deceased after being impaled and left with spear-like darts in them at the Livingston B Street railroad underpass, according to eyewitnesses.

Reports called in to the Livingston Police Department allege teens are blow-darting pigeons roosting in the underpass. No suspects were apprehended for the crime, which qualifies as animal abuse and violates city statute, per Livingston Police Chief Wayne Hard.

Martina Van Hoy, a medical laboratory scientist/coordinator at the Big Sky Medical Center, was returning to her Livingston home from a downtown pottery class with a friend at about 9 p.m. on March 10 when she witnessed a disturbing scene.

“I came under the underpass and there was a injured pigeon,” Van Hoy said. “My friend who was also in the pottery class saw two smaller teen-age boys. As she was driving the kids ran off.”

The dart had a yellow head and it was poking out the other side of the bird’s neck.

“She seemed OK, she could breathe, she was interested in water,” Van Hoy said. “I thought we could save her.”

Using a towel, Van Hoy and Kristen gingerly captured the bird. Van Hoy then brought it home. An emergency GoFundme initiated by Van Hoy fundraised $160 from community members for surgery.

The pigeon was transported to Colmey Veterinary Hospital for the arrow to be removed, where veterinarian Kylie DiCarolis took over. The surgery was risky.

“They did end up losing her because the dart hit her spine,” Van Hoy said.

“The most humane thing was to euthanize at that point. People were trying to help from all over town and across the U.S.”

Three Sleeping Giant Middle School girls who stumbled upon another pigeon impaled in a similar manner raised awareness by writing a notice on posters.

“I care about stopping this happening,” Van Hoy said. ‘It’s heart-wrenching, horrible watching them slowly die. We need to come together as a community to prevent this cruelty.”

The incidents are the latest chapter in a controversy surrounding the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad hiring a USDA contractor to shoot and kill the underpass pigeons with a pellet gun to control the population in 2025 and early 2026.

Dozens of the birds were left discarded on the streets in October 2025. Some were shot by a pellet gun but remained alive. By November, city workers were seen spraying nesting areas with water to clean the steel girders supporting the train bridge, clearing the pigeons and their nests from the underpass.

After initially pausing the contract killings at the City of Livingston’s request, BNSF resumed the control operations, according to City Manager Grant Gager.

The city was using non-lethal means, according to Gager, citing three years of conversations with BNSF over handling of the underpass pigeon issue.

Livingston resident Bonnie Goodman rescued injured pigeons that survived the sniper shots. Goodman, who encountered another blow-darted pigeon on Feb. 27 that also passed away, has rescued at least eight other underpass pigeons injured by fired projectiles.

Goodman said she believes the pigeons, discovered injured in the same general location where the USDA contractor shot them, could be copycat killings.