Just like cats and dogs, domestic (tame & unreleasable) pigeons wind up in animal shelters needing homes. Unlike with cats and dogs, few people know that they even exist let alone adopt them and, while all the other animals had rescues to help them, no one was saving these smart, gentle birds when they “timed out” until MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue started helping close this deadly gap in the Bay Area animal welfare community.

We’ve made some progress but we are still working hard to see that these birds are cared for like the other animals. Most shelters provide veterinary care for cats and dogs but few do for the pigeons and doves that they receive. MickaCoo is helping SFACC to provide basic preventative care for these birds and, despite already being overfull, we made room to take in two of the eight baby King pigeons because they had upper respiratory infections and would have been killed rather than treated. (They’re doing great and are almost well.)

King pigeons do great as indoor pets: They are quiet, smart and easy to care for. They can also live outside year-round in an aviary. They must be kept safe from predators of all sorts (including cats, hawks, rats, raccoons) and shouldn’t be ‘free flown’. MickaCoo volunteers can help coach adopters on how to care for these charming birds and you can see lots of info on our Pigeons & Doves as Pets page.

While MickaCoo has placed more than 500 birds in wonderful homes since we started in 2007, there are always more that need to be adopted. We currently have 113 in our foster care and shelters like Animal Care & Control in San Francisco and the Peninsula Humane Society in Burlingame always have lots too.

We’re thrilled that these baby King pigeons (four weeks old as of 9/1) have been moved into the high profile Lobby Cage at SFACC where the public can see and learn more about them. Potential adopters are encouraged to contact us for more info.