According to media reports, four people were killed in a dispute between pigeon breeders and a dog owner in the Portuguese city of Setúbal near Lisbon. The dog owner shot two of the pigeon breeders, aged 66 and 65, who had complained about the barking of his three dogs, with a sawn-off shotgun, the Correio da Manha newspaper reported. The approximately 60-year-old man then shot a bystander who was watering his vegetable garden. When the police arrived, the shooter took his own life, the state news agency Lusa and the newspaper “Público” also reported.
The pigeon fanciers were concerned that the barking of the dogs could scare off their birds, which they were expecting to return from a race in the Spanish city of Caceres, 240 kilometers away, as reported by “Correio da Manha”, citing neighbors. The newspaper wrote that the neighbors, who were described as unfriendly and reclusive, had been in trouble for a long time. He accused the pigeon breeders of despising his dogs.
The single man lost his job as a school security guard some time ago and then kept his head above water with car repairs. “He was unfriendly to the students. He was only sociable with dogs,” the newspaper quoted a former colleague as saying.
Lusa said there were also disputes over land and money between the pigeon fanciers and the shooter. The dovecotes and vegetable gardens were in a poor area of the city. The authorities only announced that the cause of the argument with four dead was the subject of investigations.
