Warning: This post is about cruelty and while no graphic images are included, it may be upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.

“Dog Training Birds”

Heartbreakingly, pigeons are used to train hunting dogs. Sometimes they are “planted” out in fields (with severely clipped feathers or tied and staked by a leg or “dizzied” to keep them in place) for the dogs to find, or they are “released” with a remote control device called a “launcher” from which, in theory, they fly back to the hunter’s coop to be reused for another training session. Ultimately though, the “dog birds” are killed. How-to articles describe ways to trap feral pigeons to use or where you can buy pigeons bred for this purpose as well as “surplus” racers and show birds sold cheap for this market. Pigeons are sold through hunters’ forums, used by dog training companies, recommended by the AKC, and though selling animals is against the terms of service on craigslist, many “dog training” pigeons are sold there too… we flag these ads (among others) as prohibited and though they are taken down, they quickly reappear.

The Video

While this use of pigeons is commonplace, it is not something those outside of the hunting dog world usually see but on Friday, August 17th, a puppy trainer’s video that she had posted to Facebook and which had been widely shared (especially by a group called Shame Fame) reached our Palomacy group. The video, seen now over 12,000 times on Facebook alone, showed the trainer laughingly using a live pigeon as a lure and toy to engage a puppy in “get the bird”. The trainer and puppy are having great fun and the poor pigeon, eerily composed and compliant (probably both shut down in learned helplessness as well as in a de-escalating survival strategy), endures the grabbing and dragging by both human and dog with gut-wrenching dignity. We later learned that the pigeon survives and was returned to a large pen with the other birds kept for this terrifying and painful purpose. (Click this link if you want to see the video.)

Many people, from all over the world, reacted with horror and anger and hurt to see this living being treated with such cruel disregard. Along with the understandably negative comments, there was a lot of ugliness including threats made against the trainer and kennel, negative reviews that tanked their business’ customer rating and so much angry attention that they pulled down their Facebook page. One person, pigeon lover and Palomacy Group member David Schaeffer of the Netherlands, made it his mission to save this pigeon and he succeeded! And four others too. Thanks to David’s successful negotiation with the kennel owner, Palomacy volunteer and Texas bird rescuer Bailey Knight was allowed to pick up all five pigeons the Texas kennel had been using for dog training. The kennel owners, in the process of retiring and selling their business, were willing to surrender the pigeons in a bid to end the negative attention they were getting. The kennel owner said to me when we spoke about their surrender, I never imagined there was a group like this helping pigeons!

Bailey writes, “It was only about an hour’s drive from my home, so I was more than happy to help get these pigeons to safety. I was lucky that the kennel owners had caught all of the pigeons the morning of pickup; when I arrived the 5 lucky survivor pigeons were in a blue “bird crate” and the kennel owner was outside waiting for me.

She greeted me warmly and we shook hands. She was very kind and grabbed one of my pet carriers from my car, and then we made our way over to the crate.

I had brought a dark sheet along and I put this over the crate to calm the birds, and to do my best to prevent them from flying away while we transferred them from the crate and into my two carriers. The kennel owner helped me by sliding the crate door open each time I had secured another bird with my hands, so the process was fairly straightforward and easy, which meant less stress for both us and the birds.

I admit that when we heard the pigeons were being kept in an 100’x 80’ pen, I imagined I’d be chasing these poor birds around with a net during the hottest part of the day…that’s at least 100° in Texas this time of year! I was grateful that they were contained and that we were able to finally have them safe.

We both carried the pigeons back to my car and loaded them into the back seat (and then I secured the carriers for everyone’s safety on their freedom ride out of there!).

The kennel owner and I talked for probably about 20-30 minutes, baking in the sun, and our conversation ended with a hug! We were both very open and honest with each other about how we each felt about pigeons, we talked about how they got their pigeons, and about pigeon racing. I was surprised to hear that some racers refused to sell her any birds when she told them what they’d be used for. We talked about dogs, her rescue horses, and retirement…lots of things!

She even told me that if we wanted to make a difference for these pigeons that are used for dog training, we’d have to start with the American Kennel Club. From what I understood, it is standard practice for the AKC to use pigeons for their field trials and they purchase 2.5 pigeons for each dog entered. I admit I have not researched or confirmed this.

My point is, at the end of our conversation, she seemed willing to help in our battle against pigeon exploitation; she offered advice in our favor. I wondered if we had made a new ally of pigeons that day.”

 

Once safely surrendered to Palomacy, the five pigeons, in surprisingly okay condition (though they are no doubt bruised and sore), were transferred to the wonderful care of Palomacy supporter and epic bird rescuer Friederike Pfeiffer (formerly of Sunnyvale, CA) and her bird sanctuary B2L House (now located in Texas). Though they might look like oversize ferals, they can never be released. These pigeons are actually a very large domestic breed called “Giant Runt”, bred for show and these sold off cheap for not meeting the standard. These five banded and NPA registered pigeons, who had to endure such cruelty and amazingly survived it, will never have another worry in the world. Now, they are safe and loved, with Friederike forever. She has named them Liberty, Justice, Peace, Victory and Freedom.

Palomacy thanks David, Bailey, Friederike and all who helped to make this rescue possible. While we are a San Francisco Bay Area rescue, our busy Palomacy Group is actively helping birds all over the country and beyond and we are extremely proud to have played a part in getting these poor Texas pigeons rescued. While it makes a life and death difference for these individuals, it does nothing to stop this cruelty. We are all harmed by the indifference and lack of compassion that permits this and so many other torments to continue. Learn more about how to love animals and to stop their exploitation here. Donate in support of our work here. Thank you.

 

And, in his own words, here is David’s story about rescuing the “puppy training” pigeons.

How a Guy from Europe Helped Save Pigeons in Texas

Hello everyone,
I’ve been asked to write something for Palomacy about the pigeon rescue at a Texan kennel over Saturday through Wednesday. (From my perspective in Europe). Bear with me, I’d rather try and rehabilitate an aggressive pitbull than write a piece but here goes.

Where do I even begin? I don’t feel I did that much? I will just tell the story from my perspective. The video showing pigeons being used for gun dog training came to my attention when it was shared on Palomacy’s Facebook group and like “all” of us it got me angry and upset.

My feelings were the same as everyone else’s, something along the lines of “I’d like to do the same thing to the abuser” but I also don’t believe in abuse, period, none of it. At this point I was still mostly commenting out of emotion trying to keep it in jest but decided I was going to gather any evidence I could find and corroborate. Eventually I decided to send a message with links about pigeons’ level of self awareness and intelligence to the kennel. Trying hard to quell my emotions and follow hanlon’s razor. “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (or ignorance), but don’t rule out malice” to keep myself and my language use in check. I promptly got blocked and the Facebook page went private not much later. I lost it again, “they must not care then” I concluded, a logical fallacy I normally pride myself on trying to avoid. I proceeded to spread the video to another group asking people to join and help us do something about this. I’ve said some things I regret in hindsight. I needed sleep it was around 5 am here.

The following day I, of course, got immediately sucked back into it when I checked my Facebook. I didn’t really make a conscious decision, I just ended up doing what I considered was important legwork. I started posting comments advocating awareness is the key thing to promote, continued storing verifiable evidence. I also received evidence of people uttering threats of violence and committing verbal abuse against individuals at the kennel. I started advocating abuse doesn’t solve abuse, it’s a logical paradox. Committing abuse also completely undermines any validity an anti-abuse movement of any kind has. Just, food for thought perhaps.

But I digress, I also started looking into legal avenues and was in touch with SPCA Texas but not much came of that. Not much surprise there since I later verified the practice wasn’t breaking any local laws. There is much work to do still. So that’s that I thought, not illegal, can’t agree with some of the things thrown the kennel’s way. Nothing more I can do that doesn’t conflict with my morals but then a message popped up. It was the owner of the kennel! Breathe, in out, remember Hanlon’s razor, be objective, calm, factual and prepared to hear the owner out as we expect them to. “While I’m in the group you speak of, I don’t follow the herd as it were. I make my own decisions. I’m not actively out to hurt your business, I want practices like these to stop that is all.” I received a completely reasonable response, correcting a mistake in the original message and a token of appreciation that I was not one spreading the name of the individual in the footage.

In the resulting conversation, I did not hide my opinions or how I felt, I just expressed my opinion matter of factly and instead of expressing my emotions, I simply stated what my feelings were, simply stating outright that I disagree with the practice and won’t apologize for that opinion but that I also do not condone (and I sincerely don’t) some of the things that were thrown their way. I just listened to her perspective on events for a large part, offering comments here and there. I told her a few things about pigeons, just a starter, we agreed to meet again online the next day and I would tell her all about pigeons and have scientific sources to substantiate my claims.

I spent a lot of time after our conversation doing “damage control”, trying to get people to stop activities against the kennel and once more expressing my opinion on using abuse to fight abuse. Not much else I could do but hope some people will listen as much as they listened when I was promoting action. Tried to reach out to other groups I heard had the video, informing them there is a dialogue with the owner with varying degrees of success. It is extremely important a dialogue is established and is kept going in my opinion. It’s like a war- you can’t do diplomacy with the guns still firing. Can’t converse with all that racket! It was getting morning again. Need some sleep.

Most of the following day I spent collecting scientific sources, evidence either way, everything I could possibly need for the second online meeting with the owner. The second meeting took a completely unexpected turn. Again the owner opened with some additional information and then telling me in light of all this information it’s been decided to stop using the pigeons, and asking if it was okay to release them.

Honestly, it took me quite a while to respond, I was staring at my screen blinking, I don’t know how long exactly. Here I was, with a pile of proverbial ammunition to make my case about pigeons. If I had known, I could have caught up on some more hours of sleep deprivation!!!

I asked her to not release the pigeons, that I would like them to be checked over and evaluated by a rescue for what would be best for each pigeon, a home or a feral life. Provided I could arrange it all the way from here. She agreed. Despite having come to an agreement immediately, the owner still listened to me babble on about pigeons. Even showed her pidges in diapers! While we were talking about, pigeons and several other subjects I reached out to Elizabeth of Palomacy and a few others to get something sorted as fast as we could muster. “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over”.
A few phone-calls between Elizabeth and the owner, some time and a volunteer who drove 60 miles to handle physical pick-up, (thank you Bailey!) and then pigeons were retrieved and brought into care with Palomacy.

Last I heard the owner was giving some useful information for the fight against abuse like this. I am elated, exhausted, made friends, enemies but mostly mentally exhausted, very, very exhausted. This has been a victory I suppose but also a cautionary tale. One can only unleash a mob, there’s no controlling it. Many things have happened that I think are morally indefensible no matter the cause and I’d like to apologize for what my part played in causing some people to threaten with violence, death and slinging verbal abuse at individuals who work at the kennel. I did not want that. It’s a slippery slope and an easy trap to fall into for anyone. Before one knows it, one has become what one was trying to fight. 

I hope I haven’t bored you all to tears and I hope these events in some way help in the future. Maybe it can be used to create real change. There is only so much I can do beyond my own country.

Sincerely
David Schaeffer

Please keep in mind many people were involved in this entire thing, many boards. I can’t possibly take so much credit for this. I just want to tackle any abuse when I can and help animals. I’m available should anyone want to enquire about something. d.schaeffer.enquiries@gmail.com