Disney Birds Update

[turkey]

I got a posting from another group about the Disney birds. Here it is...

******

At 05:09 PM 7/26/02, you wrote:
First of all allow me to introduce myself. I am Jonathan Brumfield,
son of the all knowing Don Brumfield ...

And let me get right out of the way that I love that you put his home
phone number up on the internet. His personal number not even his
buisness number...

So you all are probably looking for the real scoop about what is
going on at Disney. Well here it is, right from the horses mouth.
Yeah I know you have probably never heard of me but I have been
working at the loft since 1992 and have been releasing birds and
caring for them since I was 8 (Back in 1978).

We have to go back 4 to 5 years ago~~~ There was a massive outbreak
of mice in central florida. In particular in the town of Apopka. A
rural farming / cropping community about 20 miles from Walt Disney
and Orlando. The town in it's infinite wisdom trapped and relocated
hawks and brought them into Apopka to feed off of the mice. Well in
the numbers that they brought the hawk in it took no time at all.

Shortly there after winter began to come to florida and the hawks had
found a new location, Walt Disney world. I know that some of you
have probably read the rediculus story that came out of the Orlando
Sentinel about "the savvy red-tail" that was killing the birds at
Disney. That is a bold faced lie. We would have loved to have had a
Red-tail as the problem, he at least would have scarred off all the
shap-shins, coopers, merlins and red shoulders. It was full on hawk
season and what a season we were having. We could not shut down the
shows and therefore could not shut down our operations. So we
watched while hawks were picking off 2 or more birds per day.

That was the first time that we saw things that the "Vets" over at
Disneys Animal kingdom were telling us couldn't happen. And we later
confirmed it with books about predator birds. We could go outside
and see multiple hawk of different species sitting in the same tree
together waiting for the next set of birds to come in. These are
birds that are supposed to fight to the death over territory of no
less than 2 miles.

We at that time were maintaining a flock of just over 600 birds, but
at this rate even with raising 20 to 30 young per month we knew that
we were in trouble. We began to call the Vets and managers (Our
managers) over at the Animal Kingdom. We knew that we couldn't do
anything to harm the birds as it was against the law but our first
legal option was for the company to hire a falconer and humanly trap
the birds and relocate them far, far away. We we give a big
giant "NO", in the form of the message that, We are not going to
interupt the natural migratory patterns of these birds. We asked
them if they had even been listening to us in that what were were
seeing were not "Natural patterns". We were ignored. We even asked
if we could spend our own time and money to get a falconers permit to
capture and release the birds our selves at no expense to the
company. Again we were given the same line about natural migratory
patterns.

So, we were now faced with a serious problem. Although we would
easilly make it till the end of hawk season and these birds would
move back up towards the north they will now be back. Immediatly we
set about attempting to find ways to deter the hawks. First we
aquired a "pyro gun". This is a gun that fires a projectile that
will either burst in mid air with the sound and power of about a m-80
or a projectile that screams away at a high pitch. This worked well
in scarring the hawks when we saw them and were allowed to use it for
a short time until a Vet told us that they were afraid that we were
going to hurt the birds. So that quickly went away.

And over the years we have tried various things, Kites, hawk balls,
Mirrors, owls (bobbly head and stationary), the use of larger pigeons
in cages, raven and crow decoys, pigeon decoys, and even feeding the
local crows dog food. The crows were the best thing but we were
eventually told that we could leave dog food out as it was
unsanitary. So basically hawk season came and we faced it, we
watched our birds get carried off. We scarred the hawks as best we
could clapping our hands or waving nets in the air if we saw them in
the trees or comming in for the attack. But nothing was truely
successful.

Then we come to this last hawk season. Things had been particularly
dreadful and in the off season we had barely been able to break the
450 bird barrier. So Disney decided that it would order some young
birds. Did I say, young birds... They bought 200 birds. A good
number of these we cooing when we got them. Not to mention that they
were dirty and sick. We put the birds into quarrentine and several
of them died. We have to send ever bird that dies at the loft to the
Animal kingdom for a necropsy. One of them came back with Cirrca
Virus. Too our horror.

This was last October. it was the decesion of our upper managment to
stop breeding. They even told us that when all the birds die we will
get new stock. You see if the virus had spread it was commonly
believed that 1 in 3 would die in a matter of weeks. Well it just
didn't happen. The birds stayed healthy. We quickly lost the
majority of the "Young" birds and we lost many more to the now ever
present hawks.

So, we have been fighting since then to start breeding again.

Tuesday July 16th we were all called into work for a mandatory
meeting. I was personally told that this meeting would be to tell us
the final decesion on wether or not to start breeding again. We were
to have a meeting that morning at 10 am. But first we had to make
sure that we had our birds loaded for our first show of the day at
10:30. We called the show and found out from a character (You know
mickey, minnie, goofy etc) that they had already been told that there
were to be no more birds ever. That didn't bode well for our
meeting. And as you all know they officially shut us down from shows
that day and shut down weddings 2 days later after the article that
came out in the paper. Apparently a inside source a Walt Disney
asked the Orlando sentinel about why we were still doing weddings and
Special events and the plug on those was pulled immediatly.

So that brings us to now. The papers all say that the 5 full time
cast members were offered full time positions elsewhere in the
company. They forgot to mention that those jobs were in
custodial/janitorial, food and merchandise, parking attendants, etc.
they wanted us to go work with the 16 year olds and college kids.
when some of us had been with the company for 30+ years. So we are
now looking for our own jobs alongside our Union.

Now as for the Birds. They are being dispositioned. There is as of
now no official decesion on what kind of price Disney will be asking
for the birds, but more than likely it will be minimal. We have
right around 260 birds. And this is what Disneys plan is so far.
All birds will be given to lofts that Don either has alreay seen or
feels has a good reputation or those that are local and can be
inspected and seen if they will meet Disney's qualifications. Any
birds that are released will have their Disney bands cut off. The
Birds go to the lofts with the agreement that they can not be flown,
traded, sold or otherwise leave that loft. They are to be strictly
breeders or pets.

So, there you go... Oh and don't call my dad at home. Unless you
just want to talk with him. Call the Pigeon loft at Disney:

(407) 824-7010.

And if you would like to ask disney why they did away with there
birds there address is:

10,000 Lake Beuna Vista Dr.
Lake Beuna Vista FL, 32830

Thanks for the time... and I love the group...

Jonathan

PS By the way my father is retiring from Disney October 9 this year
and I will be shortly behind him. We both have our own lofts and
have worked for others for far too long...

******

[raynjudy]

Thanks, Jonathan; and you, Julie, for posting this.

Well, there it is...

I do understand the anger of this thread--and the frustration. If there's one constant in the universe, it's the bureaucratic mind.

I also lost my job last month to similar "logic". Oh, I've looked for work... It isn't easy, being told again, and again, that you're essentially extinct.

So, if I understand, there are about 200-pigeons in need of new homes, which was my original post. Another constant in the universe--needy pigeons.

Since the health concerns of the Disney Birds are questionable, I would quarintine said birds until general their health status was approved by a qualified source.

Goodnight.

PIGEONS FOREVER!!!

--Ray

[B. Crowe]

Gosh, i am not a pigeon expert, nor a raptor expert... but isn't there a way they can keep the birds in till the raptors dispurse to other territories because there is no more food source? Breed & then re-train??This is just so very sad. I live in California, and would love to take some of the birds to save their lives, but I am sure there are more closer that would be willing.

Barb

[Scuiry]

I hope this isn't duplicating above info... this appeared on PML

If anyone would like to inquire about obtaining some of the Disney Birds here is the information you need .
I have been asked that everyone please NOT call the Pigeon Manager for the Disney Lofts at home.

Call the Pigeon loft at Disney:
(407) 824-7010
10,000 Lake Beuna Vista Dr.
Lake Beuna Vista FL, 32830

Brett Savage
Ocklawaha Florida / Augusta Maine

[raynjudy]

The phone number given is the one that I provided--along with the fax number.

Best,

Ray