Guest Post by Nicole Smith

These two racing homer kids are (adoptable!) Palomacy pigeons Alba and Tramonto. I have been wanting to share their story for a while now, but I felt too angry about the way they were cruely mistreated. I wanted to make their story about them. So I’ll start with their personalities and my time with them and follow with their rescue story.

When I met Alba and Tramonto, Alba was a snuggly little potato and Tramonto was standing tall and protective. As soon as they got home, I offered them a bath. Tramonto loved the bath. Alba wanted to explore! And soon they were both crawling up my arms with darling peeps. Alba (gray) is more talkative than Tramonto (brown) but they both talk. Alba is explorative and Tramonto is easy going. They both will land on me, fly around, etc, but Alba is more of a leader. Tramonto liked the bath. Apparently Tramonto was harder to catch; Alba just let them pick herm up and Tramonto was speedy.

They did some flying and exploring, always Alba in the lead with Tramonto close behind. When I offered them a bowl of seeds, they ate every single one! I gave them a new bowl, which they devoured with sweet beeps. They lived in our bathroom (which we always keep birdsafe) while they stayed with us, with a snuggly crate for the nights. In the day, they cheerily explored together. On day two, they found the small gap under our cabinet and the floor, where I keep my slippers. I heard then shuffling around and occasionally would see one of the two peek out and look around. After they fell silent, I peered under to find Alba centered on my slipper with Tramonto hovering behind, one toe on the slipper. The two little snug nuggets were heartmeltingly curious, innocent, bright, inquisitive, and friendly. I soon got to transfer them to a Palomacy foster that will care for them as they grow and flourish.

These two were rescued after a family was seen throwing them in a dumpster. A passerby intervened, but didn’t get much information from the family. The kids said they weren’t their birds, and the parents seemed to want the kids not to talk. Luckily, that person had a friend in dog rescue, and the pigeons were captured and transfered to dog rescuers that contacted Palomacy. I then picked them up. It has been a tough pill to swallow, knowing that two innocent babies, so full of life and willing to love and be loved, were discarded like trash. And the dissonance of a family with children throwing another creature’s children in a dumpster has me devastated.

I don’t think it’s productive to respond with anger. The same weekend, I did a rescue of a beautiful racer that we named Hope. Her injuries were too great and she died in my arms while recieving emergency treatment from a vet. I’m trying to take my anger and my devastation and make it into something useful. We need legislation and laws banning releases of any kind.* I want to start working on the Bay Area this summer, by finding allies in unexpected places with greater lobbying power. I have no special skills, but I have a few ideas. (*Editor’s Note: See Pigeon Appreciation Day Demonstration 6/13/23.)

Do you have a few ideas? Or experience in local policy? Or legal savvy? Or connections with a politically powerful group in your hometown? Or good people skills? It has to be possible. Every outreach, I talk to people about the numbers published by racing communities themselves after races, the disturbingly high loss rates they report themselves, with birds that have survived training and are the “best,” and I am met with shock. There are enough people that are against it for moral reasons. And there are plenty of cities, public transit, and business owners that want fewer pigeons on the street. There has to be a way.

 

[Sound on] Here are the two racing pigeon children that were left in a dumpster last night in Alameda. They are about 4 weeks old & super sweet. And so lucky to be alive! Here they are eating, getting washed up & snuggles & the photo we were sent asking for our help. They are safe with epic rescue volunteer Nicole Marie for a minute but she is over full & these sweet kids need a foster or forever home in the SF Bay Area ASAP!

 

Nicole Smith discovered the magic of pigeons in 2020 when she and her partner, Christopher Hudson, scooped up a sickly young feral pigeon. Since then, the two of them have become Palomacy volunteers and fosterers. They have a flock of family-member birds, composed primarily of “self-rescued” pigeons that found their way to them all on their own. Nicole is employed as a caregiver and recently went back to college at UC Berkeley to finish her degree.