Why Pigeons Should Crow

[andinla]

This was written I believe in the Los Angeles Times by Andrew D. Blechman

It was in a cut out of the newspaper and was sent to me in the mail by an ex-coworker friend of mine. There was no ref to what paper it may have been the local Daily Breeze for South bay California.

WHY PIGEONS SHOULD CROW

What are we going to do about these pigeon’s? Some Angelenos like to feed them in MacArthur Park or race them from their backyards. But just as many people are tired of scrapping droppings off their cars. And they’re not alone. The mayor of London has declared war on the pigeons of Trafalgar square: Chicago has banned fanciers from keeping them as pets: the Army is working hard to evict them from its Times Square recruiting station.

Until a couple of years ago, when I began researching my book, I didn’t care one way or the other about these ubiquitous urban icons. But the more I learned about these humble birds, the more I came to admire them.

Most of us find doves endearing but look on the lowly pigeon with disdain. Well, it may come as a surprise, but pigeons are doves-rock doves to be precise. Those beautiful white doves released at weddings? Pigeons. Noah’s dove? A pigeon. Picasso? He wasn’t drawing doves: he was painting pigeons. He even named his daughter “Paloma” – Spanish for Pigeon-.

Humankind has had a fascination with the pigeon since it was first domesticated about 10,000 years ago shortly after our other best friend, the dog. In Mesopotamia, Pigeons were worshipped as fertility goddesses. The ancient Egyptians used them to ferry information about the Nile’s flood levels. Pigeons delivered the results of the first Olympics in 776 B.C. and more than 2,500 years later, they brought the news to London of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. Not only did Solomon sing their praises, he used them to deliver critical messages, as did Julius Caesar, Hannibal and Genghis Khan, Ancient Rome was awash in pigeons, but the Romans didn’t seem to mind-they took great delight in the birds.

Until the invention of the telegraph in the mid-1800s, the fastest and most reliable way to get a message anywhere was by pigeon. The famous marathon runner who brought news of Persia’s defeat to Athens took most of the day to arrive and then died. A pigeon could have delivered the message in 20 minutes.

Julius Reuters built his newsgathering empire on the wings of pigeons in the 1850’s, when he used a fleet of the fowl to carry news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, German, in two hours, beating trains by six hours. Not long after Charles Darwin proved his theory of evolution using pigeons, which populate the entire first chapter of his “Origin of Species.”(His editor prodded him to drop all that evolution nonsense and expand on the topic of pigeons. Darwin declined.)

One million pigeons served valiantly in the two world wars-delivering critical messages, passports and other dispatches-and were recognized for helping to save thousands of soldier’s lives. Even today, pigeons are used by many of the world’s militaries to deliver critical messages. When communications are compromised by high-tech eavesdropping, or knocked out altogether, you can still rely on pigeons, which is exactly what Saddam Hussein supposedly did during the Persian Gulf War. Coupled with this proud yet nearly forgotten history is the bird’s unparalleled athletic abilities. Pigeons routinely fly 600-mile races – without stopping- and average 60 mph. More incredibly, in these races, they’re flying flying home from a place they’ve never been. To put that into perspective, the very best racehorses sprint at about 40 mph around a closed track for just over a mile. Although typically thought of as a blue-collar sport, pigeon racers can count the queen of England as one of their own.

Once heralded as goddesses, war heroes and Olympians, pigeons are now best know for the damage they can do to a car’s paint job. Seems a touch unfair, don’t you think?

And contrary to pest control propaganda, pigeons carry no more diseases than humans do, and are even highly resistant to avian flu and West Nile virus. They are only as dirty as our cities, so we might consider looking in the mirror before picking on pigeons.

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Thought it was a well written article..
Andi

[mr squeaks]

Of course, I agree with you completely, Andi...I think the article was great!

Unfortunately, many people will only change their minds if they happen to be put in a situation up close and personal with a pigeon. If they are animal people, that's more than half the battle.

All of us who have pigeons have our work cut out! Just one small step by us could result in a giant wing span better understanding for pigeons!

[Larry_Cologne]

A very interesting way of putting it:

"They (pigeons) are only as dirty as our cities, so we might consider looking in the mirror before picking on pigeons."

Thanks, Andinia.

Oh, Andrew D. Blechman has written a book, Pigeons.

http://www.andrewblechman.com/

Larry.

[naturegirl]

I love that article and I wish more people felt that way about pigeons. They are very beautiful birds and have helped us out countless times in war. The poor pigeon seems to get the rap and some people just don't care, which is very extremely sad. They are a very calming bird which I will always carry in my heart forever, " My Love for Pigeons "

Cindy

[AZWhitefeather]

Thank you for posting the article Andi.

Cindy

[Feather]

Great article Andi!

[Trees Gray]

Thank you for sharing Andi!

[feralpigeon]

"...the Army is working hard to evict them from its Times Square recruiting station."

Well, now shame on the Army when the military insists on using them in all their wars and I dare say that there must be at least one 'Bio-Lab' accross the expanse of this country and its' military stations that uses them for experiments
like they use animals in general. The lab in Oakland used to inject the ears of rabbits and make them shrivel up and disappear (??) and remove the vocal cords of dogs (or whatever the equivalent in dogs is)--to hear the sound they made was heartbreaking.

Thanks for posting this article, Blechman is becoming quite a spokesperson.

fp

[andinla]

to much about gov labs and what goes on behind their closed doors... I have researched many years their so called research and have witnessed the crimes committed on animals it is a crime that should be stopped altogether.. It's scary that humans could actually do the things they do to innocent animals around the globe.

Andi