Prior to this past weekend I had never heard of pigeon bowling. Who has? Even upon learning about it, I thought it was a joke. But then I saw the footage, from the Harrow Fair in Essex, Ont., shared across social and news media over the last few days.
And there it was. Fair-goers, including children, intently watching as competitors roll live birds into balls and toss them along the ground. The birds flutter and flap to a stop, their place marked by a judge.
It could be comical if not so dumbfounding, so disturbing. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Not surprisingly, the footage and news stories went viral. The shock was immediate and the online vitriol continues today.
How could such an obviously ridiculous — obviously wrong — event be taking place, not in some foreign place we can chalk up to different cultural standards, but right in our own backyard?
I am not a pigeon expert, and those who claim to be, in this case, state this particular type of bird rolls naturally, that they are bred for this and are treated well. I’m sure most of these folks aren’t actually animal abusers. They’ve likely been watching and participating in this event their whole lives. And now, to have their wholesome event infiltrated, their traditions exposed for all to see, it must be jarring.
But it’s certainly necessary. Because the time has come for country fairs to change.
Another classic fair event, the pig scramble, has also come under well-deserved scrutiny in recent years. The event, which typically sees children frantically chasing and capturing terrified piglets, was cancelled at one PEI fair in 2017. The famous Sonoma County Fair in California also cancelled its recently, due to animal welfare concerns. Instead, pig chasing has been replaced with a slippery watermelon obstacle course.
As a culture, we are waking up to the fact that using animals in these ways is wrong.
And just as keeping captive whales and dolphins was recently banned in Canada and animal circuses are being barred by more and more municipalities across the country, it’s time for unethical fair events, including pigeon bowling and pig wrestling, to also go the way of the dodo.
The issue is not even whether or not these types of events are cruel. The issue is, whether it’s a massive whale at Marineland, or a small pigeon at the Harrow Fair, there simply is no ethical argument to justify exploiting animals for our silly entertainment.
Not anymore. We just know too much now. We know animals can experience stress and fear. We know animals are individuals with their own natural needs and desires.
This may be a tough pill to swallow, for the farming-4H-country crowd, but ultimately, this change is good. Values and traditions and knowledge can evolve for the better. You can, too.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1 877-4-NO-BIRD,(604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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The Toronto Wildlife Centre (TWC) found a pigeon with singed feathers and “scorched shut” eyes following an explosion under a downtown Toronto bridge late last month.
On Nov. 26, emergency crews responded to Bathurst Street and Fort York Boulevard just after 11 p.m., following reports of an explosion underneath the bridge.
Videos circulated on social media with loud noises and heavy plumes of smoke billowing from the bridge.
No human injuries were reported, but TWC says a pigeon was unable to escape from the flames unharmed.
“Several days after the explosion, Ariel spotted this helpless pigeon walking along the pavement,” TWC said in a Facebook post shared Friday. “His precious feathers were all singed and his typically bright orange eyes were scorched shut, leaving him practically blind.”
Ariel, whose last name was not shared in the post, called TWC’s wildlife hotline, where the bird was quickly admitted.
Upon medical inspection, one of TWC’s wildlife rehabilitation managers saw the pigeon had burns all over his body, and wings. There were even some marks inside the bird’s mouth, the centre said.
“With a gentle touch, she cleaned his wounds and gave him antibiotics to prevent infection and medicine to ease his pain,” the post reads.
A warm compress helped the bird to open his eyes again, but TWC says he will still need some treatment to heal fully.
“We are so grateful for those in the community who show pigeons the compassion they deserve,” the organization said. “This little patient will continue to receive the care he needs until he’s ready to fly again.”
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1 877-4-NO-BIRD,(604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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It’s a hobby that’s a little out of the ordinary, but those who race pigeons love it.
The Calgary Racing Pigeon Club was established in 1904 and today has upwards of 30 members.
President David McKop says member numbers are down from a few years ago because not as many young people are getting involved.
McKop says he grew up with pigeons and has been around them now for over 60 years.
He started in Zimbabwe watching his father’s passion and when he moved to England he continued raising homing pigeons and that extended to Canada in 2000 when he moved here.
“You’d be surprised that pigeon racing – you’ll find it everywhere, there’s no country that doesn’t have pigeon racing”, said McKop.
He now has around 100 pigeons that he’s training for a weekend race.
The birds are released from Field, B.C. and are judged on the time it takes them to get back to his northwest Calgary home.
“They’re probably one of the smartest birds in the world eh, they get boxed up in crates and taken 100s of miles in a trailer and let out there and they fly back,” McKop said.
Timing gear can cost upwards of $800 and good homing pigeons can range in price from $50 to $1000.
Many racers have a ‘loft’ to house their pigeons right in their back yard.
Alisar Alnahawi, 14, is learning about racing pigeons from her dad.
“Pigeons are sweet, people I know when I mention my pigeons they’re like ‘oh street rats you know’, but they aren’t street rats they’re amazing”, said Alnahawi.
The Calgary Racing Pigeon Club is hopeful more teens like Alnahawi get involved in the hobby so Calgary’s club can continue for another century.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1 877-4-NO-BIRD,(604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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“You’ve been flying for six years and you’ve thought ‘I’ve spent half my life asking where these things go’.”
Where do the pigeons go?
Mr Vanderveen said there were many theories within the pigeon racing fraternity, especially as to why some birds went missing.
“The magnetic pull of the Earth, solar flares, 5G towers, mobile phones — when you compact it all together it could be a bit of everything,” he said.
The Federal Government’s Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) researches and monitors the effects of mobile phone towers.
Assistant director of the agency’s assessment and advice section, Ken Karipidis, has assessed the effects of radio waves on animals.
He said while birds use natural electromagnetic fields, or radio waves, to help with navigation, there was no research that showed the impact of radio or mobile phone towers on a bird’s orientation.
“Mobile phone towers and other wireless telecommunications sources, including 5G, emit low-level radiofrequency electromagnetic fields which are also called radio waves,” Dr Karipidis said.
“It’s well established that some animals, including birds such as pigeons, rely on natural electromagnetic fields as one of a number of parameters believed to be used for orientation and navigational cues.
“However, there is no established evidence that radio waves from telecommunications sources disrupt the orientation cues of animals which make use of a variety of mechanisms for orientation.”
But the president of the Queensland Racing Pigeon Federation, Wayne Reese, said he believed there may be a link.
“There has been a bit of upsurge in the number of birds that get lost, or get lost for a period of time,” he said.
“It could be phone towers and it pretty much coincides with that.
“It seems to have corresponded with around the time mobile phones started. We had a pick-up in the amount of losses.
“We don’t really know why [pigeons] know their way home so it could be something like [phone tower signals] that interferes with them.”
Man-made factors, natural predators to blame
Golo Maurer, from Birdlife Australia’s Key Biodiversity Areas project, said he was unaware of any evidence that signals from mobile phone towers disrupted a bird’s navigational sense.
Dr Maurer has done extensive studies into wild bird migration and believes variations in the Earth’s magnetic field could be sending pigeons off course.
But he believed urban development, resulting in habitat loss, was a more likely factor.
“Our landscape is more and more built-up … probably in the same timeframe that people have been worrying about pigeons not returning. We’ve lost 60 per cent of some native birds in some areas,” Dr Maurer said.
“It’s hard to think they’re not going to be entirely unaffected by the destruction of nature that has also affected their wild counterparts.”
The peregrine falcon has increased in numbers and could be preying on the pigeons.(ABC News: Ginny Stein)
Dr Maurer said urban development reduced the opportunities for pigeons to rest or feed en route, while window strikes, which kill millions of birds worldwide every year, could be another possibility.
He suggested the prevalence of natural predators had also increased, in particular the peregrine falcon, since the use of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was banned.
Mr Vanderveen agreed.
“When you look at all the data that’s out there, the peregrine falcon is high on the list,” he said.
“They’re targeting pigeons. They’re not silly, they know the seasons that they come through.”
Fliers hopeful of return to racing
Pigeon racing is one of many sports to have its wings clipped due to the coronavirus pandemic, but news that Queensland’s social distancing rules are starting to relax has caused a flutter of excitement.
Travel restrictions made it especially hard for fliers to get their avian athletes race-fit, with training limited to the loft.
But Mr Vanderveen is grateful he can travel up to 50 kilometres from today.
“That’s part of the process … that’ll give them the fitness to fly back home,” he said.
“You do that a few times and that’ll give them the fitness to do a 100 kilometre race.”
Queensland’s racing season is traditionally launched in early May but will be pushed back until groups can gather.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1 877-4-NO-BIRD,(604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosing / Vancouver Pigeon Control / Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / PIgeon Deterrent / Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest / Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons / What to do about pigeons / sparrows, Damage by Sparrows, How to Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests / De-fence / Pigeon Nesting / Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping / woodpecker control / Professional Bird Control Company / Keep The Birds Away / Birds/rats/seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/pidgeon control/flying rats/pigeon problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/bird guard
Fancy a pigeon as a pet? They’re about to be legal again in the District of North Vancouver.
District council members voted 5-0 Monday night in favour of new bylaw governing domestic pigeons. It caps off a controversial two-year chapter for council, which originally voted to ban the pet birds in 2019.
Soon after, it came to light that Coun. Betty Forbes had lobbied Couns. Lisa Muri and Megan Curren behind the scenes to introduce the ban after years of complaints about her neighbour’s flock of pet pigeons.
In February 2020, former information and privacy commissioner David Loukidelis released his report into the matter following an independent review. Among other things, he recommended that council shore up their training in ethics and oversight.
Council rescinded the ban last fall and sought to replace it with a modernized version of the district’s original bylaw dating back to 1971. The new bylaw passed Monday night limits the number of backyard squabs to 20 and governs the minimum size and setbacks for their roosts. It also makes enforcement easier for bylaw staff.
Coun. Jordan Back, one of the two council members who opposed the prohibition bylaw, said he was glad to see things largely put back to the way they were.
“This has certainly been a long and very costly process – something that never should have been brought forward in the first place. We were never dealing with a community concern,” he said.
Despite the independent investigation and now abandoned lawsuits, Coun. Mathew Bond said he feels the community is still owed some accountability for the whole “frivolous” process.
“I think that leaving those issues unresolved over the long term is detrimental to the integrity of this council,” he said.
When council held a special meeting on the matter last week, only three members of the community spoke out: two who argued pigeons are a threat to public health and one who said she had no problem’s living next to her own neighbour’s flock.
Mayor Mike Little said his view that pet pigeons are better suited to more rural communities had not changed, but he also found the public health arguments “spurious at best.”
“I think it’s fair to say that this is a pragmatic solution to the problem at hand,” he said.
Similarly, Curren said she has the same perspective on animal rights now as she did when she voted in favour of the prohibition.
“But I am opposed to the process, and I advocated for this bylaw to be brought back to a public process in since Nov. of 2019,” she said, noting that council did “fall short” of the district’s code of ethics. “When we have an opportunity to listen and to learn and to do better, then we need to do that.”
Coun. Jim Hanson, who also originally voted in favour of the ban, said with only two or three known pigeon fanciers in the district, the issue wasn’t worth any more of council’s time.
“If the keeping of pigeons becomes a community issue justifying further involvement, no doubt we will hear about that,” he said.
Muri and Forbes both recused themselves from the discussion and vote.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1 877-4-NO-BIRD,(604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosing / Vancouver Pigeon Control / Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / PIgeon Deterrent / Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest / Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons / What to do about pigeons / sparrows, Damage by Sparrows, How to Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests / De-fence / Pigeon Nesting / Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping / woodpecker control / Professional Bird Control Company / Keep The Birds Away / Birds/rats/seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/pidgeon control/flying rats/pigeon problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/bird guard
