An Anonymous Guest Post by the Rescuer
Warning: This post is about cruelty and while no graphic images are included, it may be upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.
Lucky people get to know pigeons and experience the amazing birds they are. We are some lucky people, because we have had the opportunity to know many pigeons during our work here at Anonymous Sanctuary, where we provide a permanent home for farmed birds who have been displaced, abandoned or abused, and promote a completely vegan lifestyle.
About ten years ago I saw an ad for pigeons that were being sold to use for dog training or target practice. I called the department of wildlife to find out if that was legal, and I was told that since pigeons are non-native and considered a pest, it was absolutely legal. Pigeons have no protection. (See “Puppy Training” Pigeons Rescued)
Pigeons make homes in our chicken coops and barns here. Some coops have six or more active nests. Some have the two eggs, some have little yellow pigeon babies, and some have two eager little fledgling pigeons ready to take flight. Every morning when we open the barns and coops we check the straw and make sure all the baby pigeons are safe in their nests and unharmed. It is our job to make sure everyone here, including the wild birds we share the world with, are well.
Over the years we have scooped up baby pigeons with various issues and they all go to our wonderful vet. These have been the opportunities we have had to get to know them well.
Pigeons bond with each other and with us. They are trusting, affectionate, curious and they can be very funny clowns.
Mid July, we were assaulted with an atrocity of animal cruelty, right here on the sanctuary property. Hundreds and hundreds of pigeons were crammed into plastic chicken crates in the bed of a pickup truck, exposed to the hot summer sun with no escape or access to water, parked at our gate on the sanctuary property. A ladder was sticking out of the back of the pickup bed. We ran out of the house to see why on earth a truck with chicken crates was at our gate. As we approached the truck, we asked the people to leave, while at the same time, I hopped the gate and circled around the back of the truck. Dead pigeons were cramming out the holes of the crates. The smell of death hovered around the truck. Live pigeons were barely hanging on inside the crates. They told us they had been watching us with binoculars and they wanted to know if they could come catch some of the feral pigeons that lived here. The answer I gave them was a demand for them to release the pigeons they already had.
I didn’t like their response to my demand. This was cruelty on the highest level. It was nearly 100 degrees outside that day, and the day before that. The man shoved my husband and I went ahead and started opening the chicken crates to release the birds. Very few of those pigeons were old enough to know what to do when I opened the door. Most were still squeaking and still had the little yellow hairs they have as babies. Many of the adults did fly out when I opened the crate doors.
My husband walked away from the pigeon catcher to help me unfasten the tie downs on the chicken crates so I could get to the lower levels and release more birds. The pigeon catcher started covering the crates with his body and slamming the doors shut again. There was a struggle for a while, and some of the crate doors were zip tied shut. Thankfully, I always have a pocket knife on me which I used to cut the zip ties. It was so hard trying to get that evil pigeon catching man and his wife away from me so I could free those birds. Those pigeons were dying.
During the struggle we asked the pigeon catchers why they had all those pigeons in crates, dying. The man stated they breed show pigeons and sell them for $6 a piece. When confronted with the fact that we knew those birds were feral pigeons and quite young at that, they stuck to their show pigeon story.
You know those nests in our coops and barns with those little eager fledgling pigeons I mentioned earlier? Those chicken crates were filled with baby birds just like that. Those people go onto farms with their nets and scoop young, eager, curious yet unsure little birds right out of their home nests they share with their safe and doting parents, and then they cram those babies into chicken crates. The ones that survive are sold. I suppose if half of those birds survive, they could make a little bit of money off of them. They don’t care though, about them. They don’t care that half of them die. They don’t care that the heat and lack of water and shelter and food kill those babies off rapidly in the hot summer sun. If those pigeon catchers had their way, they would have come onto the sanctuary property with their filthy nets and scooped our beloved feral pigeon babies right out of their nests in our barns and added those innocent little birds to the dead piles in the back of that pickup bed.
In the end, the cops were called and we were arrested because freeing birds from that situation is against the law, but that level of outrageous and heartbreaking cruelty is legal.
Post Script
One of the officers said that catching the pigeons is the same thing as trapping mice and killing mice. How do we fight that? How do we show that pigeons are worth protecting when mice are not? To us, they’re all worth protecting.
I think it would be better to be anonymous just in case, but I do want people to understand exactly what kind of property those pigeon catchers stumbled onto. They came to the right and the wrong place. Our bird vet laughed harder than I’ve seen him laugh in about ten years and he said if there is anything to go to jail over, that’s a good thing to go for. He also said he’s proud of us. I think that’s great. I love that man.
If there are charges, I will be fighting it to the end.
The three babies I stashed are doing well. One is about ready to be released! I want to wait until the other two are ready to go with before releasing her/him. They will be released here and will join all our feral pigeons that call Anonymous Sanctuary home.
Editor’s Note: Readers, if you would like to donate in support of the author’s sanctuary, please PayPal Elizabeth@pigeonrescue.org with “Anonymous Sanctuary” in the note & I will transfer the funds to her. Thank you.
