Nov 28, 2016 06:19 AM EST

The growing population of pigeons in many parts of the world is becoming a very nasty problem.

One of the tourist attractions in Barcelona and other parts of Europe is feeding pigeons in plazas and patios of historical landmarks. However, the birds have increasingly become a problem for the past decade as they tend to trash the city, turning it into a giant dump.

The birds have been reported to poo on not only historical landmarks and buildings but also on tourists. Local authorities have been continuously receiving complaints regarding this matter. The government believes that putting the birds on contraceptive pills may gradually solve their problems regarding waste.

According to a report from Express UK, early this year, there had been a proposal regarding the euthanization of the birds to significantly reduce their population by a huge percentage. However, the proposal received protests from various animal rights groups from all over the world. This leaves the government with a dilemma on how to reduce the bird's population.

Now, a new means of control has been put in place to replace the original plan of killing the birds. The birds will be fed contraceptive food to put contraceptive pills into the birds' system. It is expected that by mid of 2017, special feeding dispensers will be installed all over the city which contain contraceptive food.

The Barcelona government has considered expert advice to successfully perform the operation without harming the birds. Results will be analyzed after the first year to see how the new "feeding system" will affect the general health of the pigeons. It is also going to be checked whether or not such an operation will be fatal to pigeons. The operation is expected to cut down the pigeons' population by as much as 80 percent in the next five years.