Lost Racer Needs a Home !!

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Got this email today....if you are interested, post here or email me.

Good morning- I am a volunteer at our local animal shelter in Frederick, MD. We recently received a racing pigeon found on some property in our county. We traced and contacted the owner, but he didn't want the bird back. Do you have any suggestions for us? Maybe someone in your club would be interested. I would be happy to meet you in Emmitsburg or Gettysburg. He's just sitting in the shelter and we'd like to find him a home. I will also be calling the Mid-Atlantic Racing Pigeon Club and the Greater Baltimore Pigeon Fanciers Assn. to see if anyone there is interested. Would love to hear from you. Thanks.

Jill Dorrian

[chipndales_boy]

If you are willing to ship the bird I can pay for shipping. I live in the far northern California area. I am looking for more birds. Please contact me at chipndales_boy@yahoo.com or call me at (707) 954 1299 Thanks, Tracy

[Pidgey]

Don't know how much about this kind of situation that you understand, Tracy, but a lost racer from the other end of the country can virtually never be let out again because it would try to go home and probably wouldn't make it. To accidently get out would probably be a death sentence. That's a sobering thought but one you should consider.

Pidgey

[WFLlofts]

I cant stand a flyer who does things like this if some one takes the time to call me I will go and get my bird or make arangments to have some one in a local club get it for me I drove over 4 hours one way to retreave one of my birds and thanked the person for contacting me it gives the sport a bad name when people say I dont want it back or even worse dispose of it for me. When you take the plung to own birds be responsible for them and dont make the sport look bad.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by WFLlofts

I cant stand a flyer who does things like this if some one takes the time to call me I will go and get my bird or make arangments to have some one in a local club get it for me I drove over 4 hours one way to retreave one of my birds and thanked the person for contacting me it gives the sport a bad name when people say I dont want it back or even worse dispose of it for me. When you take the plung to own birds be responsible for them and dont make the sport look bad.

I'm with you 1000%!!!!! It's amazing to me how people disregard these birds after they have raised them, fed them, medicated them, trained them, and then when they don't make it home, just throw them away. You should read the 911 messages.........I've known people who wouldn't drive 10 miles across town to get a bird.
I've got a bird in my loft right now that I went and picked up two days ago. A man got on the internet and found me and called. The bird was about 2 miles from our house. Went over, took food, the bird walked up to my husband and he caught it. It's a bird from Maryland. Called the club and left a message and sent an e-mail. Haven't heard a word yet. And I'm sure I never will. This happens every year. For some reason, we get one or two Maryland birds that stop over in our area. As far as I can remember, we've never had anyone call us back, except one time and the owner said, turn the bird loose and it will come home. When he said that, he didn't know that I was a pigeon racer. So, when people find these birds and look up the owner on their own and are told to "just turn it loose,it will come home", that's what they do. It was a young bird and was over 250 miles from home. I "politely" told him, "I race pigeons and I doubt very seriously that this young bird is going to fly 250 miles by itself. I won't turn it loose. You either send me a box to ship it home, or I'll find a home for it here". He said "keep it".......so I did. It now has a home with one of our new flyers, Roxtar. I hope it raises him a combine winner so we can call the owner back and tell him what it did!! And I WILL do that, believe me.............

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Originally Posted by WFLlofts

I cant stand a flyer who does things like this if some one takes the time to call me I will go and get my bird or make arangments to have some one in a local club get it for me I drove over 4 hours one way to retreave one of my birds and thanked the person for contacting me it gives the sport a bad name when people say I dont want it back or even worse dispose of it for me. When you take the plung to own birds be responsible for them and dont make the sport look bad.

I agree with all that is being said, unfortnately...we are all preaching to the same choir. For the sake of PR, there are some that will put forth some effort to pick up a lost bird, many...if not most...will not.

For a number of reasons, I am often contacted by people concerning lost pigeons, and I have traveled to pick up birds that the owners could have cared less about. It often places an unfair burden on people who are trying to do the right thing.

I wish I had a solution, about the only thing I can think of, is to try to set an example, and when possible, shame the owners into doing the correct thing. Problem is...when you twist an owner's arm to pick up his lost bird...it does the bird no good....

I know of one case, where the flyer took a box of candy as a "Thank You" to the good citizen who called in a lost bird. He thanked the lady...gave her the box of candy which she accepted. And turned around to leave...this could have been a heart warming success story...except that he walked a few feet, and before he left the porch, he pulled the poor bird's head off !

The poor lady really sort of freaked out...and it turned into a really bad, bad situation. So in many cases...we are in a no win situation, if the flyer does not want the bird back, there is really no point in pushing him to pick it up.

I would rather assist in finding a home, where the bird would be cared for...then pushing some jerk into making a PR pick up, only to destroy the bird.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by SmithFamilyLoft

I agree with all that is being said, unfortnately...we are all preaching to the same choir. For the sake of PR, there are some that will put forth some effort to pick up a lost bird, many...if not most...will not.

For a number of reasons, I am often contacted by people concerning lost pigeons, and I have traveled to pick up birds that the owners could have cared less about. It often places an unfair burden on people who are trying to do the right thing.

I wish I had a solution, about the only thing I can think of, is to try to set an example, and when possible, shame the owners into doing the correct thing. Problem is...when you twist an owner's arm to pick up his lost bird...it does the bird no good....

I know of one case, where the flyer took a box of candy as a "Thank You" to the good citizen who called in a lost bird. He thanked the lady...gave her the box of candy which she accepted. And turned around to leave...this could have been a heart warming success story...except that he walked a few feet, and before he left the porch, he pulled the poor bird's head off !

The poor lady really sort of freaked out...and it turned into a really bad, bad situation. So in many cases...we are in a no win situation, if the flyer does not want the bird back, there is really no point in pushing him to pick it up.

I would rather assist in finding a home, where the bird would be cared for...then pushing some jerk into making a PR pick up, only to destroy the bird.

I agree again, thing is.....you've got the same jerks, shipping birds to the same race stations......birds getting lost in the same areas..........owner won't retrieve the bird so the same people get calls over and over being asked to pick up someone elses bird. I don't care how big your loft is, it can only hold so many birds and some fanciers will accept one or two strays but none of them want a loft full of lost birds..........and what about the birds that get lost in the middle of no where. There's not a pigeon fancier within 150 miles of where the bird is...........