The cull is the latest step to target pest birds whose waste has badly fouled many CBD buildings and footpaths.

The Western Advocate understands property owners near the old TAFE building on William Street were made aware of the cull and that the shooters used slug guns to kill the birds.

A number of culls were carried out in late September, which saw a total of 315 birds killed.

The culls were carried out between midnight and 4am each night between September 27 and September 30.

Councillor Bobby Bourke, who has been a vocal supporter of moves to cull the CBD pigeons, admitted shooting the birds seemed a drastic step, but argued that other schemes to control bird numbers had made little impact.

“The spikes [installed on buildings] certainly don’t work, the pigeons are just sitting on them,” he said.

“I think Bathurst pigeons have two backsides now.

“They’re a pest and whichever way you go about trying to get rid of them, it’s going to be hard.

“The only thing is, I don’t think what they’re doing now is really getting to the point of the problem.

“If this cull doesn’t work, we’ll have to look at something else.”

A spokesperson for council confirmed the culls and said pest control companies had been involved in the program.

“All animals were removed each night by the contractor and disposed of accordingly,” the spokesperson said.

“This includes trapping, direct removal and spike installation.”

Council engaged consultants ngh Environmental three years ago to prepare a comprehensive Pest Bird Management Strategy for the CBD and shooting the birds was nominated as an option to keep numbers down.

However, the final report did advocate shooting to kill as an appropriate strategy.

“[Shooting is] primarily a scaring technique in areas with high numbers of birds,” the ngh report stated.

“To be carried out by experienced and licensed personnel. Not suitable in the long term as a preventative action and should be used in conjunction with other suitable methods.”

The report also suggested council run a trapping program which has had limited success, while other control methods included nest destruction, installing exclusion tools such as netting and spikes, erecting signs to discourage the public from feeding the pigeons and ensuring all bins in the CBD had lids to prevent the pigeons from foraging for scraps.