Homing/Racing pigeon.

[JohnC6]

For the third time in 12 months, a homing/racing pigeon arrived in our garden. This latest one arrived on Thursday. Because it's hot, the summer house doors were open and it was standing in there. It had a red ring on one leg and a blue one on the other.One was date-stamped GB 2026. So, not even a year old. They are ringed soon after being born..5-8 days. It originated in Essex. That's 163 miles away but it could have been en-route back from anywhere. I think they are taken in large lorries miles away and released.

It was 'puffed up' and breathing heavily and moved its head oddly and looked 'miserable'. We do have several visiting rock doves so, I'm guessing that's why it flew into the garden. It didn't mix with them, though. I did some Googling re the head movement and the disease PMV came up but after a more detailed search it obviously wasn't that. It allowed me to approach it. I gave it bird seed and water. It ate some seed and drank some water. What to do ? There's a Tokinese cat (a Burmese/Siamese cross) that likes hunting birds that comes into the garden ,infact three days ago at 5.45am I heard a very noisy crow in the trees opposite so I got out of bed to see two rock doves/pigeons pecking about on the road and the Tokinese cat, belly low down sneaking up on them but the 'alert call' of the crow made them look up and they saw it as it started to dash towards them. Leaving the homing pigeon on the lawn overnight wasn't an option. I didn't want to stress it so I got the patio brolly opened up and put it infront of the summer house so the cat wouldn't see it. Next morning, so yesterday, it was gone but returned later to the same spot... the edge of the summer house entrance. By evening, it decided that one of the armchairs was much more comfortable. Fortunately, we'd just bought two throws to protect the material from the hot sun. 34/35ºC in the shade yesterday. I do wonder if the excessive heat caused exhaustion, epsecially without access to water.

This morning, it was still there but on the floor there was seed and poo and there was poo on the throw over the chair it had sat on. My wife was less than impressed and,rightly, demanded it be moved. What to do ? There's a rescue place here that will take in birds..even these, so we decided to do that on Monday . To make sure, it was ok to put it in our cat cage..we kept it after the last cat died..I Googled it and the answer was yes...absolutely. Put a large towel or similar over the cage to reduce stress, put a shallow bowl of water in and some seed and place it in a darkened, cool area. ie the garage. I picked the pigeon up and it flapped its wings and I hoped it might fly away and put it on the lawn. It made for the summer house..possibly treating it as its loft. It just stood there..still puffed up and breathing heavily. There was no option,it had to go into the cat cage and that's what I did and placed an old large towel over it. When we took the cats to the vets we did that..also to lower stress...that's the advice. I then got Flash/hot water and cleaned the summer house floor and put the throw, after cleaning off the hardened poo, into the washing machine. An hour or so later I checked the pigeon. It was dead. Gutted..I Googled why and it seems that a normal healthy bird would easily have survived and it was clear that it likely had a hidden injury or an illness and the stress of being handled and put into the cage was too much for it. Also, I assume it was so exhausted and weakened that it had no 'inner strength'.

The last one we had for a day or two hobbled across the lawn, it could barely walk..side to side with wings a little splayed and went to the very shallow end slope of the pond..1".. to drink water. I was in the summer house and was keeping an eye on it and reading the paper. 30 seconds later I looked up and it collapsed and fallen forwards dead.As with the current one I beat myself up thinking I could have done more but,in reality..I did all I could. The first of the three this year was in much better shape and after a couple of days with seed/water and rest I contacted the owner (leg ring number) who was in Ireland. He said to contact a local fancier to collect and keep it. I did that and wished I hadn't because he was a really rough man. I've read all sorts about handing them over with many advising not to. Just let them join a local feral flock.

The are 60,000 pigeon fanciers in the UK. It really bothers me that doing this to birds is legal but we allow horses to race and they die during those races. Four died at the annual Cheltenham meeting back in March. AnimalAid have published figures that show that ,annually, 254 horses are killed at races in the UK/Ireland...154 in the UK.

Research consistantly shows that a loft-owner will lose 60% of his/her birds each year. Ie,collectively hundreds of thousands. When I Googled it AI put the number at "2 million plus". Other sources claimed 1.5- 2.0 million. Either way, an unacceptable loss of life and for what ?

 

[Garry Edwards]

Horse racing is undeniably cruel but, with respect, I think you're missing the point. The problem isn't that so many are fatally injured when racing and training, it's the way they're treated.
They spend their first 6 months with their mothers, they are then separated and spend the rest of their lives in isolation - and horses are very much herd animals, they need to have actual company, just being able to hear other horses is nowhere near enough.
"Normal" horses are allowed to develop and grow their muscles for 4 years before anyone sits on them, racehorses aren't, and are actually racing long before they have developed enough to cope with the weight of the rider and the hammering that they get from galloping.

Am I an expert? Definitely not, but I do have some knowledge, from my involvement with a horse rescue and rehoming charity https://www.allforhorses.org.uk/

 

[JohnC6]

Horse racing is undeniably cruel but, with respect, I think you're missing the point. The problem isn't that so many are fatally injured when racing and training, it's the way they're treated.
They spend their first 6 months with their mothers, they are then separated and spend the rest of their lives in isolation - and horses are very much herd animals, they need to have actual company, just being able to hear other horses is nowhere near enough.
"Normal" horses are allowed to develop and grow their muscles for 4 years before anyone sits on them, racehorses aren't, and are actually racing long before they have developed enough to cope with the weight of the rider and the hammering that they get from galloping.

Am I an expert? Definitely not, but I do have some knowledge, from my involvement with a horse rescue and rehoming charity https://www.allforhorses.org.uk/

That's great charity work.

Two things I'd like to say, Garry. No-one can 'miss a point' when they don't have the full picture. I wasn't aware of any aspect of what you've outlined. Dying during a race,then, is the ultimate cruelty taking into consideration what you've said. You say that..."The problem isn't that so many are fatally injured when racing and training, it's the way they're treated" I'd say it was both.

It angers me to see someone,usually the race course manger/CEO on TV at the end of a racing day when asked about fatalities say they love the horses and feel as sad as everyone when tragedies like that occur.

A friend told me than an insider had said that they will put down a horse that could, with care, recover but not be able to race again because the insurance won't pay out. True or not, I have no idea.

Btw. I read the link you provided about the rescue/rehoming charity and the link inside that outlining the full story of the attempt by the NYMNPA to close down the charity and was appalled at the way it's planning department has dealt with the issue and landed the charity with a bill for legal fees etc of £41,000 reduced to that by the Judge from the original £64,000 .I was impressed with how 'Lou' coped on her own during Covid because volunteers were in lockdown. I did some other 'digging around' and I'm left with a suspicion that one or more 'influential' objectors in the locality have had the ear of the planning department. I've shown it all to my wife and have made a bank transfer to All For Horses for £100 between us.

 

[Garry Edwards]

John, firstly, a very big thank you for your donation, we're really struggling to resolve this problem. I share your suspicions. As you may have worked out, I'm very heavily involved in this matter and I could say a great deal more but I don't want to be sued . . .

Back to race horses. It's all about the vast amounts of money involved, IMO if these people cared about the horses at all they wouldn't be part of it.
The public-facing side of the racing industry is that the horses are beautifully turned out, extremely well cared for, everything is always spotless, but the public just don't know what goes on, and most of them probably don't care either.

The horse isolation situation has always been the case, the horses aren't allowed to socialise in case they accidentally injure each other, it isn't deliberate cruelty but the result is the same.

All properly-cared for horses live in small social groups in big fields, plenty of room to get away from each other if they want to, able to socialise, groom each other and watch over each other at other times - horses need to lie down to sleep, they can and do doze standing up but they will only ever lie down to sleep properly when there are other horses with them, looking out and ready to warn them, which occurs with other types of animals too.

A lot of horses make to 40 years old or thereabouts, there was once a racehorse (born 1935) that raced at the age of 42 but today, most flat-racehorses are finished at about 3 years old - before they are old enough to actually be ridden. A few successful stallions and mares are kept on for breeding, but only a tiny minority of geldings and average entire animals are ever rehomed, they are considered to be disposable. Bullets are cheap.

 

[Eucris]

So what is the difference between breeding horses to compete in races, and breeding pigs sheep and cattle to be slaughtered for human consumption.

 

[Garry Edwards]

So what is the difference between breeding horses to compete in races, and breeding pigs sheep and cattle to be slaughtered for human consumption.

Good question. I would say that breeding racehorses is totally unnecessary and so, come to that, is breeding 53 million pheasants in the UK each year so that they can be shot for "sport"

Whether it is or isn't necessary to breed sheep, cattle and pigs for slaughter probably depends on whether people are vegan or not, although I'm not sure that breeding pigs can ever be justified, but that's just my personal view.