Spikes on top of astronaut Fred Haise’s statue causing concern among Biloxi residents

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - The statue of astronaut Fred Haise on the Lighthouse Pier is turning heads. That’s because the city of Biloxi put spikes on top of the statue last week in an effort to preserve it.

The statue is in an area where there are a lot of birds. Seagulls are known to frequently perch on top of the revered astronaut’s head. Biloxi Public Affairs Manager Cecilia Dobbs-Walton said the spike can help to keep the birds away.

“This is just another method that the city is looking at,” Dobbs-Walton said. She said the city tried other strategies to keep the birds off the statue in the past but none of them worked.

“The city doesn’t want to harm any animals, but we just have to make sure that we take the best route to preserve the statue.”

Richard Stefanini said he takes walks past the statue all the time. Stefanini said the spikes on top of the statue are a travesty.

“Looks like a character out of a Mad Max movie,” Stefanini said. “I just don’t think it looks that good when I see it from behind, I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

Stefanini said he thinks the spikes could harm the birds and that the city could have come up with a better solution.

“They could’ve talked about it for a few minutes before they decided to go ahead and throw something up there,” he said.

Dobbs-Walton said she thinks the spikes are helping in keeping the birds away.

“There’s no birds landing on it,” she said. “There are no birds that seem to be harmed around the area so as of right now, there’s no birds on there.”

Click here to subscribe to WLOX News on YouTube: Keep up with South Mississippi news, sports, and local events on our YouTube channel!

Copyright 2023 WLOX. All rights reserved.