Pigeon Racing -- What a Disgrace

Life Pets & Domestic Animals
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[quote=“hannes”][quote=“urodacus”]Yes, hannes. Of course pigeon racing is a disgrace. It’s not as bad as cockfighting, national pastime of Thailand. Or dog fighting, national past time of West Virginia. But it is worse than many other hobbies that involve animals, like burning ants with a magnifying glass, popular, I am told, among sadistic 7 year olds who later grow up to be English teachers.

I take back that comment about pigeon soup: after all, it’s not as good as roast duck. But then all that has zero to do with pigeon racing, and I should have kept on topic.

Did you like my Mike Tyson comment though? Perhaps I should have stuck with Michael Vick.[/quote]

I know it’s all funny and you are indeed funny. Maybe I am a bit too emotional these days. Maybe I am emotional cause I really love them birds. I sometimes go out at 5 in the morning and listen to birds singing. Makes my day.

Mike Tyson, not sure if you know that, has a deep affection for pigeons, doves, whatever, and he’s involved in pigeon racing, which makes it all really confusing. Not sure if his activities involve container ships off the coast of North Carolina, who knows.[/quote]

He does that urban thing, with the rollers and all that.

They train them to fly different directions and patterns and stuff, directed by hand claps and whistles, IIRC.

Like in Training Day

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The speed of his right arm when grasping that pigeon is impressive. That’s where his boxing past comes in handy.

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Or vice versa

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Didn’t someone say earlier that he eats pigeons?

I’m confused.

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[quote=“urodacus”]Didn’t someone say earlier that he eats pigeons?

I’m confused.[/quote]

Racist!!!

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Ironically, PETA issued this recently:

taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003591680

[quote]PETA issues statement in concern over pigeons
AFP, TAIPEI

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) yesterday urged Taiwanese authorities to investigate the pigeon racing industry, which it said costs the lives of 1.5 million birds a year.

“We are calling on the police to protect these peaceful, home-loving birds by investigating all violations of the laws associated with pigeon racing and prosecuting the guilty parties,” PETA said in a statement after filing a complaint with police this month.

PETA said a five-month investigation it carried out in Taiwan found that races “often proved fatal” for pigeons that were released hundreds of kilometers offshore and forced to fly home.

“Thousands of young birds die in each race when they are swept under water by waves or succumb to exhaustion before reaching land and drown because they cannot rest on water,” said a PETA investigator, who asked not to be named.

Pigeons were also forced to race with untreated injuries, while not properly rested or in extreme weather. Sometimes they are killed if they return late, PETA added.

More than 30,000 Taiwanese pigeon breeders race about 2 million pigeons each year, of which an estimated 1.5 million die, PETA said.

“Taiwan’s pigeon-racing industry is the most extreme, most deadly and most crime-ridden in the world,” PETA spokeswoman Ashley Fruno said. The sport is popular in Taiwan but has been linked to illegal gambling.

Taiwanese media estimated that pigeon racing was worth NT$70 billion (US$2.3 billion) and has existed for more than 60 years. Criminal activity linked to the sport such as extortion, race fixing and kidnapping pigeons for ransom have been reported in the local media.

The National Police Agency said it would look into PETA’s concerns.[/quote]

I pass a couple of pigeons in a cage (I think there were three last week) every morning. I am seriously thinking about emancipating them. They are next to a kind of factory on a drainage/flood canal road. But, I’m wondering if they would still hang around or fly back.

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C’mon. How would the factory send out its messages if you did that? It’s not like they’ve got the email thing everywhere yet, you know.

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Pidgeon racing over water is plain wrong. Some of these pidgeons have flown all the way to SINGAPORE !!

They should be raced over the land mass of Taiwan only.

Then if they WANTED to fly to SINGAPORE, they still could.

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US$1.9M for a bird.