Guest Post by Sindy Harris

My husband, Steve, and I brought home our first pigeon, Glory, about a year ago. She was a self-rescue, and a beautiful white homing pigeon. Steve and I didn’t even know that she was a pigeon! Steve just knew this white bird refused to fly away, despite much “shooing,” and instead remained unreachable under his car.

Glory asked us to help

So, Glory came home to me in a box, with the task of answering, “what do we do now”?  Research quickly led me to Palomacy, and like a porthole, I stepped into a whole new world: the world of rescued pigeons.

I guess, it started slowly enough: talking to Elizabeth Young, Palomacy’s founder and director, about domesticated pigeons and what owning pigeons would be like; getting a mate for Glory, the handsome and devoted King pigeon, Cy; building an aviary in our backyard and filling it with rescues. As each pigeon arrived with his or her own rescue story, own unique personality and own distinctive and beautiful love life, it opened my eyes and my heart to these amazing birds. So too did the human beings of Palomacy. Palomacy itself is something of a “flock,” a community of people who are deeply committed to educating others about domesticated pigeons, rescuing them and being a source of support and encouragement for other animal lovers.

The first aviary Glory built

This could be the end of the story, having found peace and joy with my backyard flock and a new community of like-minded friends. But this is just the beginning. Two things happened the last several months that inspired me to build another aviary. This time at a farm sanctuary in Martinez, called One Living Sanctuary.

First, Steve and I and another Palomacy volunteer, Shiva Se, were able to rescue 15 of 16 Roller pigeons, which were apparently “dumped” in an industrial center in Concord. A kind employee of Magna Chrome had called Palomacy about the new flock of colorful birds, all wearing metal bands. Roller pigeons are deliberately inbred for a genetic defect that strikes in mid-flight, causing a brief seizure that sends the birds spiraling (“rolling”) uncontrollably toward the ground. Why they were left and by whom will never be known. All that was clear is that they needed help, and the three of us were able to rescue 15 of the 16 tattered, helpless hungry Rollers. (We went back many times but were never able to catch the 16th.)

Rescuing Rollers

But then what? Shiva had all the pigeons she could house. Our backyard aviary was full. The Palomacy aviaries at Ploughshares and in members’ back yards were overfull with rescues.  So, I did the unthinkable: I took the Rollers home, cleaned out my spare room, covered the furniture and let them free there.

Rescued Rollers

That is, until some sort of temporary structure could go up outside. A week or so later, with the help of Jill McMurchy, Palomacy’s Care Coordinator, we erected a temporary 6’ by 8’ Wingzstore aviary (one of two donated by adopter Penny Noel) on the side of the house. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t my spare bedroom either, and the Rollers could remain comfortably there until each could be fostered or adopted. Time passed, none were.

Emergency fostering

15 saved Rollers

The second thing that happened was similar. On January 7th, seven baby King pigeons huddled at Fort Funston were rescued by the San Francisco Animal Care and Control. They were likely part of a release, perhaps even well-intentioned, as baby King pigeons are sold at live markets for meat – squab.

Domestic King pigeons helpless at Ocean Beach

They were taken to the San Francisco Animal Shelter, where they remained for three weeks. Palomacy volunteers reached out to sanctuaries seeking placement and Ari Wee’s appeal to One Living Sanctuary, owned by veterinarian Faith Albright, worked! She brought them home and two days later, Palomacy volunteers (including Steve and I) set up the other 8′ x 6′ Wingzstore flight cage for them.

Setting up the aviary

Love

Teamwork!

Rescued Kings’ initial aviary

These King pigeon babies would soon outgrow the small space. Then what? Incoming rescues were quickly outpacing any place to home them, and the ones already rescued weren’t getting fostered or adopted fast enough.

Saved!

So, it was time to create more aviaries! I approached Faith about building a more permanent structure in her sanctuary for her fast-growing King pigeons and the rescued Rollers. It could also house more rescues for Palomacy. She graciously agreed and so our builder created a big, gorgeous permanent aviary. On April 7th, the beautiful birds, seven Kings and eight of the Rollers moved in: home!

Home!

Thank you!

We are happy to be safe & home!

There are two things that are desperately needed by Palomacy: more aviaries and a place to put them. Quite often, one person has one of these resources but not the other. That was the case in the match between One Living Sanctuary and myself. One Living Sanctuary had a place for an aviary, but little funds for such a venture. I had no place for another aviary, but a little extra money. We put our resources together and now there is a big, beautiful aviary for rescued pigeons to finally call home.

Elizabeth coined the term, “super,” to be applied to any bird that inspires the adoption of another. Hence, Super Glory, who has inspired the adoption of 40 pigeons (and counting!), is Super, Super, SUPER Glory!

Stacey, Theo & their flock with Sindy!