tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64178231788692581682024-03-13T15:32:51.570-04:00People for the Preservation of PigeonsPeople for the Preservation of Pigeons is concerned with the protection and preservation of mankind's oldest domestic bird, the gentle and loyal pigeon. We support pro-pigeonism in order to promote their positive portrayal in society. Pigeons bring joy to millions who appreciate how they animate our cities. Pigeons were routinely used in wartime as airborne couriers flying over rough terrain and behind enemy lines carrying messages strapped to their legs.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-75673419392231019702012-12-10T10:42:00.000-05:002012-12-10T10:42:04.049-05:00The Pigeon Parents<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-ruhling/astoria-characters_b_1957609.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false">Huffington Post article</a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBFy36nVt3odhmbloXWeAskzD89vrqND1rLgL1mFS2zdFnz43IMLRaG0ZNTalpIUwsFPNQEGC3RDJ5BbGaHTf6Lh-0D4Wf8neF2SvjF2TkVLTa3enL3iFiJEFCvqKTAhpinhHJOAOvNnk/s1600/305184_10150344955453769_101225828768_8183214_2091341713_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBFy36nVt3odhmbloXWeAskzD89vrqND1rLgL1mFS2zdFnz43IMLRaG0ZNTalpIUwsFPNQEGC3RDJ5BbGaHTf6Lh-0D4Wf8neF2SvjF2TkVLTa3enL3iFiJEFCvqKTAhpinhHJOAOvNnk/s200/305184_10150344955453769_101225828768_8183214_2091341713_n.jpg" /></a></div>
There's a pigeon flying overhead when Eugene and Kaori Oda open the front door</a>. And another. And another. Three in all. They land in the living room, where they're sitting in a row on the sofa, which is protected by a pair of plastic tablecloths printed with pictures of autumn leaves.
<br><br>Eugene rolls up a desk chair and sets a roll of toilet paper on the glass-topped coffee table. You never know when or where Troy, Nini and Lucky are going to let one fly.
<br><br>Pigeon poop, Eugene explains, isn't the squishy stuff you see smeared on car windshields. No, if you feed the birds the proper food, pigeon seed, the poop pops out like plump raisins.
<br><br>There's always a lot of it. "It's easy to pick up," Eugene says.
<br><br>This is important shit to know because Eugene and Kaori are housing two dozen rescue pigeons in their one-bedroom apartment. Troy, Nini and Lucky, who are their pets, are the only ones allowed free flight. The others are in cages or carrying cases and will be released once they are well enough to wing it.
<br><br>"People think pigeons are rats with wings, but they are charming creatures," says Eugene in all seriousness. "Each one has its own character."
<br><br>It's people, not pigeons, who have given the birds a bad rap, Kaori adds. "The birds are the innocent ones," she says. "People treat them badly and harm them without even knowing it."
<br><br>Something as insignificant as a piece of string or a strand of hair can cripple pigeons when it gets tangled in their webbed feet.
<br><br>Troy, a blue bar, has a crushed right wing so he can't fly long distances; Nini, a grizzle, has been with them since she was a baby and doesn't know how to survive in the wild; and Lucky, a checker, has neurological problems -- watch her long enough and she'll start twisting her head like a corkscrew for no reason. That's why Eugene and Kaori are keeping them.
<br><br>Something stirs the trio, and they take a swift swoop, fluttering with all their might. If anyone ever films a sequel to Hitchcock's The Birds, these guys should get starring roles.
<br><br>Eugene, thin and tall, and Kaori, petite and pretty, remain unflappable during this spontaneous flight.
<br><br>The 36-year-old Eugene, who was born in Chicago to Japanese parents, has lived all over the world.
<br><br>Kaori, 37, is a native of Japan. They met at Boston University, where they earned degrees in international relations. After they married, they moved to Astoria, where they make their living as stay-at-home freelance translators.
<br><br>They never paid much attention to pigeons until a couple set up housekeeping in their neighbor's air conditioner.
<br><br>"It looked so beautiful," Eugene says. "The male brought the branches, and the female made the nest."
<br><br>They met their first injured pigeon three years ago. It had taken refuge under a food-vendor's cart, and they decided to take it home. For care instructions, they sought help from the Wild Bird Fund, but the bird didn't make it.
<br><br>"It was very sad," Kaori says. "We buried it in Astoria Park under a small tree." Soon, they were picking up other pigeons.
<br><br>"It started as a hobby," Eugene says, adding that they recently became New York State licensed wildlife rehabilitators. "But it became a mission for us." Of course, there were adjustments that had to be made. The apartment had to be pigeon-proofed. They removed the sharp objects, books, decorative items and even the ceiling lights and their bulbs.
<br><br>The sick birds are quarantined in the bedroom, so Eugene and Kaori sleep on a futon in the living room. It doesn't seem to bother them. And they had to change their schedules. They get up to the sound of coos at 5:30 a.m. By the time they feed the flock, change the newspaper carpets in the cages, dole out medications and do rehab on little limbs and wings, it's close to 8. "Some of the birds can't eat on their own," Kaori says. "And the babies need food every three to four hours."
<br><br>In between work projects, they pick up poop and clean the apartment, which is kept operating-room clean. By 10 p.m., they are more than ready to head to their futon.
<br><br>"We don't go out much, and we have no regrets," Eugene says, adding that they've never added up the costs of the care. "This is our only entertainment and pleasure."
<br><br>Eugene and Kaori usually keep 10 pigeons, so with 24, it's getting a little crowded. They dream of the day when they can give the birds more wing room. They'd like to build a bird sanctuary in Astoria.
<br><br>"We're going to keep going," Eugene says. "We want to save as many as possible."
<br><br>Troy, Nini and Lucky stare at him approvingly from their living room perches.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-50037062968760719192012-05-02T11:43:00.000-04:002012-05-02T11:43:48.768-04:00The Pigeoneers film will premier at Cinema Village in New York City<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqUBkx3WT3UIcBulqC6_EUGlLaJBVgwI-iVo5gz-XRKUZO33ouK8kdC4zF_NYRLPEDoEJNjBKWG4m5EeUFIJkKEVDnCmWCkxrhKDez7JW7q0C5TpmAWnADtT3D_Lp9HwIIcS3VfBVrbk/s1600/pigeons.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqUBkx3WT3UIcBulqC6_EUGlLaJBVgwI-iVo5gz-XRKUZO33ouK8kdC4zF_NYRLPEDoEJNjBKWG4m5EeUFIJkKEVDnCmWCkxrhKDez7JW7q0C5TpmAWnADtT3D_Lp9HwIIcS3VfBVrbk/s200/pigeons.bmp" /></a></div>
<i>Directed and produced by Alessandro Croseri<br>
Featuring Colonel Clifford A. Poutre, Chief Pigeoneer, U. S. Army Signal Corps Pigeon Service
</i>
<p>"The Pigeoneers" is an homage to the bravery of homing pigeons who saved thousands of lives in combat in the Great World Wars. Their achievements embodied the attributes of service, endurance, loyalty and supreme courage. Here, their memory is evoked by Colonel Clifford A. Poutre, Chief Pigeoneer, U. S. Army Signal Corps Pigeon Service, 1936-1943. Poutre enlisted as a Private in 1929, soon after, became a Pigeoneer stationed at the 11th Signal Company, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii until 1936In this debut film, director Alessandro Croseri delivers a stunningly beautiful ode to combat pigeons and their pigeoneers. The documentary follows Col. Clifford Poutre at age 103 during the final year of his life and examines his innovations in the training of homing pigeons for combat missions during World War II.
<p>Drawing on a rich array of archival footage, the film tells the story of Poutre's thirty-one years of military service as former Chief Pigeoneer of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, his successful rejection of "starvation" methods of training in favor of a system defined by kindness and care, his pigeons' remarkable feats both in combat and in civilian races, and his notable friendships with the likes of Nikola Tesla, himself an impassioned pigeon handler in the later years of his life.
<p>Through a collection of intimate interviews and black and white photography set to the nostalgic tunes of Glenn Miller, The Pigeoneers serves up a one-of-a-kind tribute and heartfelt exploration of the complex, interdependent relationships between humans and the birds we so often overlook.<p>
<a href="http://www.pigeonsincombat.com/thepigeoneerswebpage.html">The Pigeoneers film premier</a> will be at Cinema Village.
<br>Opening on Friday, June 8, 2012
<br>Ending on Thursday, June 14, 2012.
<p>Cinema Village Box Office
<br>22 East 12th Street (between University Place and Fifth Avenue)
<br>New York, NY 10003
<br>(212) 924 3362
<br>www.cinemavillage.com.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-84822047838436036242011-12-23T04:23:00.002-05:002011-12-23T04:29:23.311-05:00How Smart Is This Bird?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSjx8ckYNQLNrfhI-qZF1Bv4Tu0M92R5tG9GBW_RCrJAka0wUaUxWkLU4SsYHjHhucoRyBPsdDpgP6WdLePpfaTT2TX2IHE601TOSXm4C7jSCPMq5FmxHSQHWfZxS0e2Rtx_H8C26G8Q/s1600/41527_100000813110990_4549355_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSjx8ckYNQLNrfhI-qZF1Bv4Tu0M92R5tG9GBW_RCrJAka0wUaUxWkLU4SsYHjHhucoRyBPsdDpgP6WdLePpfaTT2TX2IHE601TOSXm4C7jSCPMq5FmxHSQHWfZxS0e2Rtx_H8C26G8Q/s200/41527_100000813110990_4549355_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689252633169303330" /></a><strong>How Smart Is This Bird? Let It Count the Ways</strong><br />By James Gorman<br /><br />By now, the intelligence of birds is well known. Alex the African gray parrot had great verbal skills. Scrub jays, which hide caches of seeds and other food, have remarkable memories. And New Caledonian crows make and use tools in ways that would put the average home plumber to shame.<br /><br />Pigeons, it turns out, are no slouches either. It was known that they could count. But all sorts of animals, including bees, can count. Pigeons have now shown that they can learn abstract rules about numbers, an ability that until now had been demonstrated only in primates. In the 1990s scientists trained rhesus monkeys to look at groups of items on a screen and to rank them from the lowest number of items to the highest.<br /><br />They learned to rank groups of one, two and three items in various sizes and shapes. When tested, they were able to do the task even when unfamiliar numbers of things were introduced. In other words, having learned that two was more than one and three more than two, they could also figure out that five was more than two, or eight more than six.<br /><br />Damian Scarf, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago, in New Zealand, tried the same experiment with pigeons, and he and two colleagues report in the current issue of the journal Science that the pigeons did just as well as the monkeys.<br /><br />Elizabeth Brannon, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, and one of the scientists who did the original experiments with monkeys, was impressed by the new results. “Their performance looks just like the monkeys’,” she said.<br /><br />Score one for the birds. The pigeons had learned an abstract rule: peck images on a screen in order, lower numbers to higher. It may have taken a year of training, with different shapes, sizes and colors of items, always in groups of one, two or three, but all that work paid off when it was time for higher math.<br /><br />Given groups of six and nine, they could pick, or peck, the images in the right order. This is one more bit of evidence of how smart birds really are, and it is intriguing because the pigeons’ performance was so similar to the monkeys’. “I was surprised,” Dr. Scarf said.<br /><br />He and his colleagues wrote that the common ability to learn rules about numbers is an example either of different groups — birds and primates, in this case — evolving these abilities separately, or of both pigeons and primates using an ability that was already present in their last common ancestor.<br /><br />That would really be something, because the common ancestor of pigeons and primates would have been alive around 300 million years ago, before dinosaurs and mammals. It may be that counting was already important, but Dr. Scarf said that if he had to guess, he would lean toward the idea that the numerical ability he tested evolved separately. “I can definitely see why both monkeys and pigeons could profit from this ability,” he said.<br /><br />No testing has been done with numbers greater than nine, so whether a pigeon can count large numbers of bread crumbs or popcorn kernels is a question still open to investigation.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-65461564486089533442011-09-28T14:36:00.005-04:002011-09-28T14:52:34.218-04:0012 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know About Pigeons<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAiVpIdZ416OiB6dkrJK0vqwDfnl5Wu0xtoQwqmS0VhK-J4msoevqsspfm3DlUd1Hs_XGTyhKXm6jxMCg7hX23l51LW6HtytnqY9BoRmIoiegz04J_2NPHUynXhgHzPs27u9Wof47pWg/s1600/pigeons-width200.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAiVpIdZ416OiB6dkrJK0vqwDfnl5Wu0xtoQwqmS0VhK-J4msoevqsspfm3DlUd1Hs_XGTyhKXm6jxMCg7hX23l51LW6HtytnqY9BoRmIoiegz04J_2NPHUynXhgHzPs27u9Wof47pWg/s200/pigeons-width200.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657485238058323954" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRS3MjmHB4TbNat8qY9Ko9-V5ZK3seVRqkqfzjfzR0Y-PIo4paGPpDvVcOUZkjRQjvf-cWaTHZyegeBbluj1YdjemIE10srnwdp2WbriNvTnBxYL1MdzlYWM24psR8LzUgWiNnXxKVu60/s1600/_44297022_medal.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRS3MjmHB4TbNat8qY9Ko9-V5ZK3seVRqkqfzjfzR0Y-PIo4paGPpDvVcOUZkjRQjvf-cWaTHZyegeBbluj1YdjemIE10srnwdp2WbriNvTnBxYL1MdzlYWM24psR8LzUgWiNnXxKVu60/s200/_44297022_medal.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657483608674015938" /></a><br />by EVOLVE! Campaigns <br /><br /><strong>How old are pigeons?</strong><br /><br />Pigeons have lived alongside man for thousands of years with the first images of pigeons being found by archaeologists in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and dating back to 3000 BC. It was the Sumerians in Mesopotamia that first started to breed white doves from the wild pigeon that we see in our towns and cities today and this undoubtedly accounts for the amazing variety of colors that are found in the average flock of urban pigeons. To ancient peoples a white pigeon would have seemed miraculous and this explains why the bird was widely worshipped and considered to be sacred. Throughout human history the pigeon has adopted many roles ranging from symbols of gods and goddesses through to sacrificial victims, messengers, pets, food and even war heroes!<br /><br /><strong>Biblical references</strong><br /><br />The first biblical reference to the pigeon (or dove) was in the Old Testament of the Bible in the first millennium AC and was the story of Noah and the dove of peace. Later, in the New Testament, the pigeon was first mentioned during the baptism of Christ where the dove descended as the Holy Spirit, an image now used extensively in Christian art. These early biblical references have paved the way for the many different ways that the urban pigeon is viewed in modern societies worldwide. Perception of the pigeon through the centuries has changed from God to the devil and from hero to zero!<br /><br /><strong>Pigeon poop – foul or fantastic?</strong><br /><br />Although pigeon poo is seen as a major problem for property owners in the 21st Century, it was considered to be an invaluable resource in the 16th, 17th and 18th century in Europe. Pigeon poop was a highly prized fertiliser and considered to be far more potent than farmyard manure. So prized in fact that armed guards were stationed at the entrances to dovecotes (pigeon houses) to stop thieves stealing it! Not only this, but in England in the 16th century pigeon poop was the only known source of saltpetre, an essential ingredient of gunpowder and was considered a highly valued commodity as a result. In Iran, where eating pigeon flesh was forbidden, dovecotes were set up and used simply as a source of fertilizer for melon crops and in France and Italy it was used to fertilize vineyards and hemp crops.<br /><br /><strong>The pigeon as a war hero</strong><br /><br />In modern times the feral pigeon has been used to great effect during wartime. In both the first and second World Wars the pigeon saved hundreds of thousands of human lives by carrying messages across enemy lines. Pigeons were carried on ships in convoys and in the event of a U-boat attack a messenger pigeon was released with details of the location of the sinking ship. In many cases this lead to the survivors being rescued and lives saved. Mobile pigeon lofts were set up behind the trenches in the First World War from which pigeons often had to fly through enemy fire and poison gas to get their messages home. The birds played a vital role in intelligence gathering and were used extensively behind enemy lines where the survival rate was only 10%. In the Second World War pigeons were used less due to advances in telecommunications, but the birds relayed invaluable information back to the allies about the German V1 and V2 Rocket sites on the other side of the Channel.<br /><br /><strong>The pigeon as a messenger</strong><br /><br />The earliest large scale communication network using pigeons as messengers was established in Syria and Persia about 5th Century BC. Much later in the 12th Century AD the city of Baghdad and all the main towns and cities in Syria and Egypt were linked by messages carried by pigeons. This was the sole source of communication. In Roman times the pigeon was used to carry results of sporting events such as the Olympic Games and this is why. Games and this is why white doves are released at the start of the Olympic Games today. In England, prior to the days of telegraphs, pigeons were often taken to soccer matches and released to carry home the result of the game. Their use as a messenger in war time resulted in many pigeons being awarded honors by both the British and French Governments. Incredibly, the last ‘pigeon post’ service was abandoned in India in 2004 with the birds being retired to live out the rest of their days in peace.<br /><br /><strong>'Rock Dove' or 'Pigeon</strong> <br /><br />The feral pigeon that we see in our towns and cities today is descended from the Rock Dove (Columba livia), a cliff dwelling bird historically found in coastal regions. The word ‘pigeon’ is actually derived from the Latin word ‘pipio’ which meant ‘young bird’. The word then passed into Old French as ‘pijon’ and thus the English name ‘pigeon’ was derived and is now used the world over as a common name for the Rock Dove. Other common names include ‘domestic pigeon’ and the ‘feral pigeon’. In 2004 British and American Ornithologists officially re-named the bird the Rock Pigeon.<br /><br /><strong>Mating habits of the pigeon</strong><br /> <br />The feral pigeon mates for life and can breed up to 8 times a year in optimum conditions, bringing two young into the world each time. The frequency of breeding is dictated by the abundance of food. The eggs take 18/19 days to hatch with both parents incubating the eggs. Young dependant pigeons are commonly known as ‘squabs’. Both parents feed the young with a special ‘pigeon milk’ that is regurgitated and fed to the squabs. Each squab can double its birth weight in one day but it takes 4 days for the eyes to open. When squabs are hungry they ‘squeak’ whilst flapping their wings and as a result they are also commonly known as ‘squeakers’. At approximately 2 months of age the young are ready to fledge and leave the nest. This much longer than average time spent in the nest ensures that life expectancy of a juvenile pigeon is far greater than that of other fledglings.<br /><br /><strong>How do pigeons navigate?</strong><br /><br />There are many theories about how pigeons manage to return ‘home’ when released 100’s of miles from their loft. A champion racing pigeon can be released 400-600 miles away from its home and still return within the day. This amazing feat does not just apply to ‘racing’ or ‘homing’ pigeons, all pigeons have the ability to return to their roost. A 10-year study carried out by Oxford University concluded that pigeons use roads and freeways to navigate, in some cases even changing direction at freeway junctions. Other theories include navigation by use of the earth’s magnetic field, visual clues such as landmarks, the sun and even infrasounds (low frequency seismic waves). Whatever the truth, this unique ability makes the pigeon a very special bird.<br /><br /><strong>Pigeons as lifesavers</strong><br /><br />Although pigeons are one of the most intelligent of all the bird species man has found limited uses for the birds other than for the purposes of sport, food and as a message carrier. A team of navy researchers, however, has found that pigeons can be trained to save human lives at sea with high success rates. Project Sea Hunt has trained a number of pigeons to identify red or yellow life jackets when floating in the water. The pigeons were not only found to be more reliable than humans but they were also many times quicker than humans when it came to spotting survivors from a capsized or sinking boat. The pigeon can see color in the same way that humans do but they can also see ultra-violet, a part of the spectrum that humans cannot see, and this is one of the reasons they are so well adapted to lifesaving.<br /><br /><strong>Pigeons in the news</strong><br /><br />One of the world’s most famous news agencies, Reuters, started its European business by using trained homing pigeons. The service was started in 1850 with 45 pigeons carrying the latest news and stock prices from Aachen in Germany to Brussels in Belgium. Although a telegraph service between the two countries existed, numerous gaps in the transmission lines made communication difficult and slow. The birds travelled the 76 miles in a record-breaking two hours beating the railway by four hours. <br /><br /><strong>Why do you never see a baby pigeon?</strong><br /><br />Most small birds rear and fledge their young in 2/3 weeks with young birds sometimes leaving the nest after only 10 days of life, but pigeons are different, their young remain in the nest for up to 2 months before fledging. This gives the young pigeon an advantage over many other species of bird. It leaves the nest as a relatively mature juvenile, allowing the bird to cope better in the first few days of its life, a dangerous time for all youngsters. Juveniles can be told apart from adults but it takes an experienced eye. A juvenile’s beak often appears to be far too long for the size of its body and the cere (the fleshy area at the top of the beak) is white in adults and greyish pink in juveniles. <br /><br /><strong>Are Pigeons Intelligent?</strong><br /><br />Pigeons are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet with pigeons being able to undertake tasks previously thought to be the sole preserve of humans and primates. The pigeon has also been found to pass the ‘mirror test’ (being able to recognise its reflection in a mirror) and is one of only 6 species, and the only non-mammal, that has this ability. The pigeon can also recognise all 26 letters of the English language as well as being able to conceptualise. In scientific tests pigeons have been found to be able to differentiate between photographs and even differentiate between two different human beings in a photograph when rewarded with food for doing so.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-11673717073483733202011-09-02T23:31:00.000-04:002011-09-02T23:31:57.597-04:00Rachel Trachtenburg "Pigeon Song"<iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Tq0jX7NC3cI?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe>New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-83620755974443619402011-04-13T10:24:00.004-04:002011-06-01T13:18:21.588-04:00Pennsylvania Senate committee approves bill to ban live pigeon shoots<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxxGgHIFBL5UFMKU1Yo3oGGCzebUEG9E_Xaj89eW8a05IjznYAo_hmk44h4HUw9oCO8bwBjeomR91OyHDLVDISW-8RlLiktyI-jnci-LYjZp2qnKpfp-vTxDSI2udWBi-Ic26xYPK4Jdg/s1600/20071205_inq_spigeon05z-a.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 79px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxxGgHIFBL5UFMKU1Yo3oGGCzebUEG9E_Xaj89eW8a05IjznYAo_hmk44h4HUw9oCO8bwBjeomR91OyHDLVDISW-8RlLiktyI-jnci-LYjZp2qnKpfp-vTxDSI2udWBi-Ic26xYPK4Jdg/s200/20071205_inq_spigeon05z-a.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595076008323168338" /></a>Referenced from US Humane Society:<br /><br /><br />The Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11 to 3 today in favor of legislation to end target shoots with live pigeons once and for all. Pennsylvania holds the dishonor of being the last place where such cruel spectacles are regularly and openly allowed. SB 626, Sen. Pat Browne – District 16, now goes to the full Senate.<br /><br />Pigeon shoots are bloody, wanton events where trapped birds are launched from boxes. Prizes are granted for shooters who kill the most.<br /><br />“We thank Sen. Patrick Browne for tirelessly pushing this legislation to end cruel contests outlawed in most states, and Sen. Stewart Greenleaf and members of the Judiciary Committee for passing this legislation onto the Senate,” said Heidi Prescott, senior vice president for the Humane Society of the United States. <br /><br />Today’s committee approval represented the first legislative vote on the issue in 11 years despite widespread opposition to these events. <br />Sen. Browne’s measure specifically states that traditional hunting activity is not included in the ban. <br /><br />About pigeon shoots:<br /><br />•Other supporters of SB 626 include the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, the Pennsylvania Federation of Humane Societies, The Pennsylvania Bar Association and the ASPCA. <br />•A small circuit of pigeon shoots exists in Pennsylvania, attracting out-of-state shooters who cannot participate in the activity considered animal cruelty in their home states. <br />•In pigeon shoots, the birds are launched one at a time from traps in front of shooters who blast away at close range. <br />•Typically, 70 percent of the birds released in pigeon shoots are wounded rather than killed outright, with some wounded animals escaping into the area to suffer for hours or days before dying. <br />•Like dogfighting and cockfighting the shoots are invitation-only events with participants said to bet large sums on the outcomes. <br />•In 1999, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that pigeon shoot participants could be prosecuted for animal cruelty leading to the ending of the annual Hegins Labor Day Pigeon Shoot. But shoots have continued at private clubs.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-13801012170998103922010-12-01T15:52:00.011-05:002010-12-01T16:16:55.645-05:00Living at Peace with Pigeons (pigeon lofts)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFcjw7iUCUD-WeQNs3DefUPX8UjQH0QeEEyQYZLYbZxvSnJ7EBfqd-9h8-hsIaillrmIlS4DTEphQvZ9mYSvNQa6yAtrc5GBSJr9SZXd8T7dnRswewY2jSRy5dT3ILEQ9A3e81UgWzx1Q/s1600/lofts.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 139px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFcjw7iUCUD-WeQNs3DefUPX8UjQH0QeEEyQYZLYbZxvSnJ7EBfqd-9h8-hsIaillrmIlS4DTEphQvZ9mYSvNQa6yAtrc5GBSJr9SZXd8T7dnRswewY2jSRy5dT3ILEQ9A3e81UgWzx1Q/s200/lofts.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545825347176408802" /></a><br /><strong>Living at Peace with Pigeons</strong><br /><br />How pigeon lofts are good news for birds – and also for cities<br />By Marleen Drijgers. <br /><br /><em>(Editor’s Note: In her <a href="http://www.zoenature.org/2010/07/pigeons-arent-pests/">previous post</a>, Marleen Drijgers, the founder of the European Council for Humane and Effective Pigeon Control, described how many cities across Europe have stopped treating pigeons as pests and started to treat them as the beautiful birds they are. Now she explains how to create a good living space for them.)</em><br /><br />In the late 1990s, the city of Rotterdam, Germany, laid out a plan to kill all its pigeons. I had already had success in persuading several town, in Holland, where I live, that mass killings do not reduce the population in the long term and are not only cruel but a waste of taxpayer money. So I was invited to address the council in Rotterdam. The majority of the council agreed with me and they vetoed the plan.<br /><br />At the same time, I met a German artist, Stefan Gross, who was living and working in Rotterdam. Stefan told me that in two cities in Germany, pigeons were not being killed anymore. Instead, they were living in pigeon lofts donated by well-wishers. After our meeting, Stefan proceeded to design a modern loft for the pigeons of Rotterdam, and local bird associations began organizing with city councils, volunteers and private donors to have them installed and maintained.<br /><br />When pigeons get a beautiful loft where they can eat and sleep, they also get a makeover in peoples’ minds. Because the lofts are good-looking, modern and practical, people stop thinking of their inhabitants as dirty, ugly, flying vermin. Good food results in good-looking, healthy birds of which a city can be proud. And the lofts themselves are artistic pieces of architecture.<br /><br /><strong>The pigeon lofts</strong><br /><br />The lofts are made of aluminum, so they are not heavy. They are also insulated, so they’re cool in summer and warm in winter. And they’re attached to the rooftop of a building in a way that ensures they are storm-proof.<br /><br />Not every city pigeon needs a loft. Lofts are for places where the birds gather in flocks, creating a nuisance. A pigeon loft is a humane solution that reduces complaints that droppings and nests are polluting buildings and apartment blocks.<br /><br />The loft must be built close to places where the pigeons are already sleeping and nesting. A loft in a park does not solve the problem. Pigeons like sitting high on rooftops, so rooftops are good places for lofts.<br /><br /><strong>Caring for the pigeons</strong><br /><br />To prevent a pigeon loft from becoming overcrowded, volunteers remove eggs and replace them with plastic eggs. Only when female pigeons brood very often do they leave a single egg that will hatch. In a loft where 150 pigeons sleep and brood, more than 300 eggs and more than 600 pounds of pigeon droppings will be removed each year. (Pigeon eggs are edible by humans, so I like to think the pigeons are paying the “rent” for their house in eggs.) We also provide them with a good mixture of cereals and seeds and fresh water daily.<br /><br />Caring for the pigeons obviously takes some work. As I mentioned in my previous post, I became interested in pigeons through my neighbor, who used to put out food for them on her roof. I began to do the same thing, putting out a big bowl of drinking water and a small tub for bathing. It was lovely to see the pigeons splashing in the water and also grooming and looking after each other. Once a week, I had to clean my rooftop of pigeon dung, but I didn’t mind – the pleasure exceeded the nuisance.<br /><br />In some European cities where pigeon lofts are taking hold, the people who look after the pigeons and clean the lofts are paid for their work. In others, this work is done by volunteers who love pigeons. It just takes a little organization to make sure the routine is maintained. And the small investment of paying someone to do this work is far less than the cost of pigeon extermination.<br /><br />The new lifestyle we provide for the pigeons also increases their lifespan. Without a loft, a pigeon’s life expectancy is about 3 years. Pigeons living in a loft live longer because of the good food and the shelter from rain, snow and wind.<br /><br />Also, for racing pigeons who get lost during the races, the lofts are a true sanctuary where they can live for the rest of their lives. (Most pigeon keepers are not interested in having them back, because there are no longer any prizes to be won with them.)<br /><br />Here in the Netherlands, there are now pigeon lofts in five cities, and plans are in motion for three more cities. In Germany, there are lofts in almost 40 cities and there are also some in Belgium, France, Italy and the U.K. I’ve also had some inquiries from Athens in Greece.<br /><br />More and more cities are seeing that this humane method is also effective, and more and more cities are discovering that installing lofts is far preferable to the senseless and cruel killing.<br /><br />I hope that cities in the U.S. choose for pigeon lofts as well. They are peaceful birds, so we should let them live in peace.<br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><em>Marleen Drijgers is the founder of the <a href="http://www.duivenoverlast.nl/">European Working Group for Effective Pigeon</a> Control. You can contact her directly there for more information about creating a pigeon loft, or introduce her work to your local bird protection group.<br /><br />There are no organized city programs in the United States yet to create lofts for city pigeons. For more information about helping pigeons in the United States, visit the New York Bird Club.</em>New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-69188102661350821632010-11-11T08:08:00.001-05:002010-11-11T08:13:27.772-05:00World's Largest Pigeon!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRrcQjQLZFERqPI58PB6dTvSXAMOjFa66YWh34TdhhYkB5waTmmCGUQSN3kTEjSzFSGuCfgnhSXTLRN4_jYKCmPWmQDbtBSSTQqkZAyifkv1dmp4z6mFwGeb97DpG88TzmwArQg9h-Fc/s1600/72769_1337920907255_1808114348_663784_7041632_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRrcQjQLZFERqPI58PB6dTvSXAMOjFa66YWh34TdhhYkB5waTmmCGUQSN3kTEjSzFSGuCfgnhSXTLRN4_jYKCmPWmQDbtBSSTQqkZAyifkv1dmp4z6mFwGeb97DpG88TzmwArQg9h-Fc/s200/72769_1337920907255_1808114348_663784_7041632_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538278806202959170" /></a><br />Eindhoven, The NetherlandsNew York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-6027984688696730112010-11-03T08:17:00.006-04:002010-11-03T10:12:22.327-04:00Avitrol Corp Discontinues Sale of AvitrolSeveral sources including the Humane Society of the United States as well as the Avitrol Corporation have reported the shutdown of the company that manufactures Avitrol. See the link for details. <br /><br />A poison, Avitrol was used to reduce the number of birds at industrial, agricultural and urban sites. Use of the product was limited to licensed pest applicators and usually resulted in dead or dying birds. Introduced more than 25 years ago, Avitrol has long been opposed by animal welfare and conservation groups. <br /><br />See letter from Avitrol Corp:<br />http://ovocontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Avitrol-Letter.pdfNew York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-26114697866058396592010-10-09T11:28:00.002-04:002010-10-09T11:30:52.780-04:00The Ford Motor CompanyPlease flag <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOsvEf5kLIc">this video</a> as violent and inappropriate.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-14953572105889017412010-10-01T07:57:00.001-04:002010-10-01T08:00:29.152-04:00Canned Pigeon Hunt Exposed on CNN Headline NEWS show15,000 Domestic Birds to be Shot for Target Practice<br />Thank you CNN Headline News for covering this story:<br />"Issues: With Jane Velez-Mitchell"<br /><br />Activists travel to Pennsylvania almost every week to attend the pigeon shoots and document the event. They point out that Pennsylvania’s Animal Cruelty Law, Title 18, section 5511, prohibits a person from wantonly or cruelly ill-treating or abusing any animal. The law also prohibits neglect, abandonment, and deprivation of food, drink, shelter, or veterinary care. Pigeon shoots violate every one of these prohibitions. All of the information including videos can be downloaded below or at PigeonShoots.com.<br /><br />Pigeon shoots are competitions wherein hundreds to thousands of live birds are shot at to win prizes. A typical 3-day shoot contest can kill and injure up to 15,000 birds. The next canned pigeon shoot event is scheduled for October 3, 2010.<br /><br />The pigeons are captured and collected for weeks ahead of time, then released from trap boxes only yards away from the so-called “sportsmen”. The birds are generally dazed and suffering from dehydration or starvation as they are sprung out of the boxes.<br /><br />Rather than mercifully being given a quick death, 70% of the birds are injured when shot and either left to suffer slow deaths or collected and killed by pigeon shoot “trapper boys” or “wringers”, traditionally children, who break their necks, step on them, tear off wings, suffocate them, or cut off their heads with garden shears, among other abuses.<br /><br />Pigeon shoots are nothing more than a vile excuse for entertainment for the dull-witted or psychopathic. Illegal in other countries and in all but a couple of American states, most people realize the despicable nature of these bird-killing contests.<br /><br />Activists vow to take the war against Pennsylvania’s remaining live pigeon shoots directly to the people, aided by a $1 million gift from former television personality Bob Barker.<br /><br />Contact: Steve Hindi – President/Founder<br />Email: info@sharkonline.org<br />Phone: 630-557-0176<br />Visit: www.FreeAnimalVideo.org/breaking-news to get all the video.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-56636819852140273402010-08-30T15:41:00.002-04:002010-08-30T16:32:06.579-04:00The Fascinating Life and Times of the Humble PigeonIf you´re a city dweller, chances are you see them everyday - strolling down the sidewalk with their friends, having lunch at a local cafe, or just hanging out in the park. But for as much as we share with our urban lifestyles, few animals are as misunderstood or as maligned as the humble pigeon. They are such a part of life around the world that it´s not so strange to hear otherwise sensible animal-lovers refer to pigeons as ¨rats with wings,¨ offering nary a word on their unique history or simple beauty. Perhaps the time is nigh to better understand our feathered city-dwelling neighbors who´ve been pigeonholed too long.<br /><br />Of the 309 different species of pigeon, Rock Pigeons are the ones most acquainted with urban life - but despite the advantage they take of human infrastructure, there was a time that even they had to rough it. In fact, the species has been coolly strutting around for about 20 million years, long before the advent of bread crumbs or bronze statue perches. In the wild, the animals´ original habitat was on the rocky cliff sides of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.<br /><br />Although nowadays many people aren´t big fans of the birds, one reason they´re so numerous today is that once pigeons were highly regarded. Between 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, the birds were first captured and raised by humans - primarily for food, but also to carry messages over long distances. The animals´ feathers, too, were prized for their attractive feathers and unique coloring. Selective breeding in centuries past is one reason that pigeon color patterns are so varied today.<br /><br />Early on, humans took note of pigeons´ uncanny sense of finding their way home and employed them with carrier duties, giving rise to Messenger Pigeons. Even Julius Caesar took advantage of these clever birds, using pigeons to send war reports from the front line. The birds were used in a similar capacity for centuries, before radio and telephone communication made them pretty much obsolete. But some pigeons enlisted to aid in war efforts turned out to be quite brave as well.<br /><br />One popular story from World War I surrounds a pigeon named Cher Ami, stationed with American troop fighting on the front-line in France. When soldiers from New York´s 77th Division found themselves under siege from friendly-fire, they tried sending a note via Messenger Pigeon to inform the other troops that they weren´t the enemy, but the bird was shot down. Another bird was sent, but it too was killed. In a desperate third attempt, the soldiers tied a note to Cher Ami: "Our artillery is dropping a barrage on us. For heaven's sake, stop it!" The bird was shot too, several times, but managed to keep flying until the message was delivered. For this bravery, Cher honors back home. His body can be seen at the Smithsonian Institute.<br /><br />Despite occasionally being honored for their service in war-time, pigeons as a symbol are have quite a different reputation under their more flattering pseudonym - the dove.<br /><br />But even the humble pigeon, as a city-dweller, doesn´t get credit where credit may be due, in part because of certain misconceptions that the birds spread disease to humans. Although they can carry parasites and viruses, like West Nile, pigeons are thought not to be transmitters of it. Still, many urban areas have gone to great lengths to dampen their presence about town.<br /><br />London´s Trafalgar Square was once famed for its vibrant pigeon population, considered a tourist attraction in and of itself. In 2003, however, the city´s mayor banned the sale of pigeon food, hoping the birds would move on. Activist groups, like Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeons, sought to keep the birds around and continued to feed them anyways.<br /><br />Other cities have taken a more drastic approach to combating pigeons, even resorting to the use of poisons, though the practice isn´t preferred since it can pose a threat to other animals too. Selectively removing fertilized eggs from specially installed coops and even birth control are amongst the other creative, slightly more humane solutions to too many pigeons in cities across the world.<br /><br />It´s only been a few centuries since the birds were first brought to the Americas, but now the Rock Pigeon can be found in nearly every city in the world with a population numbering in the tens of millions. Some other pigeon species, however, haven´t fared quite as well. Eleven species of pigeon have gone extinct - like the famous over hunted Dodo bird - while several others are considered threatened.<br /><br />City pigeons, though clearly outside of their natural habitat (just as we are, I suppose), are animals of unique talent a beauty - even if they may eat our refuse and occasionally sully our memorialized forebearers. Even pigeon loving groups have been established, like Cornell University´s Project Pigeon Watch, aiming to redefine how the world looks at the bird.<br /><br />Who knows, with an open mind and little understanding, perhaps one day the pigeon will be thought of with a bit more respect, and even adoration. You´ve got to admit, they are pretty darn coo.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-56950054828133209652010-08-06T09:46:00.001-04:002010-08-06T09:48:30.315-04:00Pigeon Racing is a Cruel Blood SportAugust 4, 2010 <br /><br />Pigeon racing is a cruel blood sport <br />By Times Wire <br /><br />Thank you for exposing the pigeon racing industry for what it is - a cruel and possibly illegal enterprise operating under the guise of an innocent hobby.<br /><br />In response to Zig Vanderwall's denial of culling (killing) racing pigeons by wringing their necks, and his statement that "I don't know where (PETA) got that," I could offer many sources, but here's just one: A commonly used Gulfcoast Homing Pigeon Club sponsor's reference book states that "in most cases, birds not up to standards are culled." It describes the killing as a "necessary evil" to maintain the quality of the racing pigeons, and notes that the most common method of doing this is by "wringing the neck."<br /><br />This aspect aside, many birds are killed when they have no choice but to race the hundreds of miles back to their lofts and mates through storms or are attacked by predators en route. If they must land due to injury or exhaustion, they can starve to death because they were born in captivity and do not know how to fend for themselves.<br /><br />The county commissioners are in a unique position to ensure that the restrictions on keeping pigeons are kept and enforced, and to limit the number of birds exposed to this violent blood sport.<br /><br />Jenny Lou Browning<br />People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Panama CityNew York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-16606397579396652102010-07-27T04:24:00.005-04:002010-07-27T04:42:48.664-04:00Pigeon Population Decline with OvoControl PPigeon population problems pooping out?<br />June 9, 2008 <br /> <br />In today's This Week Ahead column, we catch up on what's happening in Hollywood--not with celebrities but with pigeons:<br /><br />How have the efforts to shrink the pigeon population in Hollywood using birth control gone since announcing it last July?<br /><br />Since August, some of the area's estimated 5,000 pigeons have been eating pill-shaped kibble known as OvoControl P from feeders on rooftops, making Hollywood the first area to try the contraceptive since it was given state approval in late July. <br /><br />About 300 pigeons flock every morning at daybreak to eat up the contraceptive kibble, which contains nicarbazin, an ingredient that stops an egg from developing. OvoControl P has been registered with the state Department of Pesticide Regulation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and is approved by PETA and the Humane Society.<br /><br />Laura Dodson, president of the Argyle Civic Assn., a neighborhood group leading the effort called <a href="http://www.peta.org/MC/NewsItem.asp?id=10082">Citizen Pigeon</a>, said that they raised enough money from local businesses and residents -- over $50,000 -- to install five rooftop automatic feeders. They’ve also installed cameras to monitor the birds eating online. <br /><br />After four months, the 438 pigeon regulars in one spot dropped to just below 40. Some through attrition, but pigeons are "just having less babies now," Dodson said. <br /><br />The original date to reduce the pigeon population by 50% was 2012, but Dodson said that pest control and wildlife officials think it could happen within the next two years. <br /><br />The pigeons are disliked in the area, currently under millions of dollars in renovation efforts, because of the messy droppings. <br /><br />Italy, though, is taking a different approach on cracking down on the birds.<br /><br />--Francisco Vara-OrtaNew York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-12395697843437655502010-07-05T11:59:00.003-04:002010-07-05T12:06:07.516-04:00Passenger Pigeons Deserved Better Fate<em>The last passenger pigeon passed on in 1914. He lived in a zoo in Cincinnati</em>.<br /><br />That’s pretty pathetic, considering that, at one time, their numbers were estimated to be in the billions. This particular breed of squab was fairly large, at 17 inches length. And, apparently, tasty. When the Europeans arrived, the passenger pigeons’ days were numbered. They were slaughtered by the thousands. For a time men actually made a living traveling to pigeon breeding grounds and killing them for market. By the mid-1800s they were thinning out. By 1914 they were gone.<br /><br />The eastern Indians — ours included — were fond of these passenger pigeons as well. Sometimes their winter hunting camps were aimed as much as putting them near the pigeons’ nesting grounds as any other game. They used the pigeons for meat and even as a kind of butter.<br /><br />Explorer John Lawson wrote about his first experiences with passenger pigeons:<br /><br />“(They) were so numerous in these Parts, that you might see many Millions in a Flock; they sometimes split off the Limbs of stout Oaks, and other Trees, upon which they roost o’ Nights. You may find several Indian Towns… that have more than 100 Gallons of Pigeons Oil, or Fat; they using it with Pulse, or Bread, as we do Butter… The Indians take a Light, and go among them in the Night, and bring away some thousands, killing them with long Poles, as they roost in the Trees. At this time of the Year, the Flocks, as they pass by, in great measure, obstruct the Light of the day.”<br /><br />You’ve got to admit, that’s a lot of pigeons. The ground beneath the trees, where they roosted, was covered by a half-foot layer of dung. Think of parking your newly-waxed car in the shade and discovering that the next morning!<br /><br />And, Lawson avowed, this was only a small portion of their population: in 1701, when he was exploring the westernmost part of the Carolinas, he saw “infinite Numbers of these Fowl…(that) would fly by us in such vast Flocks, that they would be near a Quarter of an Hour, before they were all pass’d by; and as soon as that Flock was gone, another would come; and so successively one after another, for great part of the Morning.”<br /><br />It is sad that spectacles like this can only be experienced through history — and that we are the reason this is so.<br /><br /> <br />Sun Journal article<br />Bill Hand can be contacted at newbernhistory@yahoo.com.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-12202985495654074252010-05-12T19:12:00.003-04:002010-05-12T19:24:39.640-04:00Humane Society of the US Supports Pigeon Birth Control<em>As the pigeon population steadily is declining on its own most likely due to extreme difficulties pigeons are facing surviving on our planet, the HSUS is in full support of the birth control drug for pigeons OvoControl P. The following article is in their newsletter:</em> <br /><br />‘Birth Control’ for Pigeons Now Available Without a Prescription<br />EPA reclassifies OvoControl P® as general-use<br /><br />WASHINGTON — The Humane Society of the United States praised the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the "restricted-use" classification for OvoControl P, a promising birth control agent for use in pigeons. <br /><br />"We are extremely pleased with the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to ease restrictions on OvoControl P," said John Hadidian, director of Urban Wildlife Programs for The HSUS. "General-use approval will make OvoControl P more readily available to communities and businesses that want to control pigeon populations humanely and effectively." <br /><br />OvoControl P is an edible pellet treated with nicarbazin, a chemical that effectively reduces egg hatching rates in birds when used in combination with exclusion and other humane measures. It was originally registered by the EPA in 2008 as a "restricted-use" product, a designation that limited the sale and use of the product to licensed applicators only. <br /><br />The new classification means that it will no longer be necessary to have a special license to purchase and use OvoControl P. OvoControl is also registered for use in Canada geese and Muscovy ducks under the more stringent label restrictions. <br /><br />The HSUS' Wild Neighbors program promotes nonlethal solutions to conflicts between people and wildlife. For many years, pigeons have been subject to lethal control through poisoning, trapping, shooting or other inhumane methods. The HSUS supports the use of birth control technologies as a way to humanely control animal populations and decrease the likelihood of conflicts. <br /><br />OvoControl is available through distributors or directly from the manufacturer, Innolytics, LLC. Visit ovocontrol.com for more details. Click here for more information from The HSUS on solving problems with pigeons.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-13721378103792568342010-03-22T10:02:00.003-04:002010-03-29T19:12:44.791-04:00Mike Tyson Pigeon Racing Show Ruffles PETA's FeathersMike Tyson Pigeon Racing Show Ruffles PETA's Feathers<br /> <br />NEW YORK — An animal welfare group wants New York City prosecutors to investigate Mike Tyson's reality television show about pigeon racing.<br /><br />People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says the Brooklyn-based show is cruel to animals and its races could involve illegal gambling.<br /><br />The show will follow Tyson as he competes in pigeon races. The former world heavyweight champion has raised pigeons all his life but is a racing rookie.<br /><br />The show airs next year on Animal Planet. A spokeswoman says there have never been plans for wagering on the races. She says the pigeons will be "cherished and respected by their owners," including Tyson.<br /><br />PETA sent a letter dated March 18 to the Brooklyn district attorney's office requesting an investigation.<br /><br />District attorney spokesman Jonah Bruno says the office is looking into the allegations.<br /><br />additional <a href="http://animals.change.org/blog/view/standing_with_pigeons_against_mike_tyson">link</a> (added 3/29/10)New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-80723696663143411962010-03-06T12:51:00.003-05:002010-03-06T12:56:07.211-05:00Pigeons Beat Humans at Solving PuzzleBirds adept and solving 'Monty Hall problem' named after game show host<br />By Charles Q. Choi<br /><br />Pigeons might do better than humans at game shows, at least on "Let's Make A Deal." <br /><br />These new findings — involving the pigeons superior ability to solve a perplexing statistical problem — might in turn shed light on why humans are bad at solving certain kinds of problems, scientists added. <br /><br />The so-called Monty Hall problem is a well-known puzzle named after the original host of the game show "Let's Make A Deal," who presented contestants with three doors, one of which held a prize, the other two only goats. The prize and the goats were placed randomly behind the doors beforehand, and stayed where they were throughout. After the contestant made a guess, Monty Hall would always open one of the remaining doors that he knew did not contain the prize. The player was then always given the option of staying with their initial guess or switching to the other unopened door. <br /><br />Most people opted to stay with their initial guess, despite the fact that switching actually doubled the chances of winning. <br /><br />To see why the apparently illogical choice of switching is actually better, one must understand that before the host opened one of the three doors, the contestant did not know the location of the prize, and thus when he or she chose a door, the contestant had a 1-in-3 chance of being right. That does not change even after the host opened a door. If the probability of the first door the contestant chose remained the same, and there were only two doors left, that meant the remaining unopened door must have had a 2-in-3 chance of being right — that is, it had twice the chance of holding the prize. <br /><br />The fact that people do badly at this problem is true across cultures, including Brazil, China, Sweden and the United States. Indeed, when the Monty Hall problem appeared in the "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine along with an explanation of the solution, the columnist received some 10,000 letters, 92 percent of which disagreed with her solution. This failing holds true even of many statisticians and mathematicians who should know better, including Paul Erdos, perhaps the most prolific mathematician in history. <br /><em><br />Pigeons know better</em> <br />To shed light on why humans often fall short of the best strategy with this kind of problem, scientists investigated pigeons, which often perform quite impressively on tasks requiring them to estimate relative probabilities, in some cases eclipsing human performance. Other animals do not always share the same biases as people, and therefore might help provide explanations for our behavior. <br /><br />Scientists tested six pigeons with an apparatus with three keys. The keys lit up white to show a prize was available. After the birds pecked a key, one of the keys the bird did not choose deactivated, showing it was a wrong choice, and the other two lit up green. The pigeons were rewarded with bird feed if they made the right choice. <br /><br />In the experiments, the birds quickly reached the best strategy for the Monty Hall problem — going from switching roughly 36 percent of the time on day one to some 96 percent of the time on day 30. <br /><br />On the other hand, 12 undergraduate student volunteers failed to adopt the best strategy with a similar apparatus, even after 200 trials of practice each. <br /><br /><em>Why people don't get it </em><br />One possible reason people are worse than pigeons at the Monty Hall problem might be due to how people learn. <br /><br />Past research with university students found they almost universally believed that staying and switching were equally likely to win, while younger students believed this less. Only in the youngest group tested — a bunch of 8th graders — did a significant although small fraction of students figure out switching was the best strategy. It may be that education leads people to acquire ways of thinking that, while efficient, can interfere with certain kinds of performance. <br /><br />"During 'education,' which I would take to encompass not just formal education, but also one's general life experience, we acquire heuristics — rules of thumb that, either consciously or unconsciously, allow us to respond to a complex world quickly," said researcher Walter Herbranson, a comparative psychologist at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. "But while these heuristics are fast and generally accurate, they're not correct 100 percent of the time." <br /><br />The scientists propose the curious difference between pigeon and human behavior might be rooted in the difference between classical and empirical probability. In classical probability, one tries to figure out every possible outcome and make predictions without collecting data. In empirical probability, one makes predictions after tracking outcomes over time. <br /><br />Pigeons likely use empirical probability to solve the Monty Hall problem and appear to do so quite successfully. <br /><br />"Different species often find very different solutions to the same problems," Herbranson said. "We humans have ways of tackling probability-based problems that generally work pretty well for us, the Monty Hall dilemma being one notable exception. Pigeons apparently have a different approach, one that just happens to be better suited to the Monty Hall dilemma." <br /><br />Empirical probability is a slower, less elegant, brute-force method that can be tricked by the kind of random fluctuations seen in real data, Herbranson said, but it doesn't employ any mental rules of thumb that can lead to traps such as the Monty Hall problem. In a similar way, the visual systems we depend on to quickly make sense of the world around us can lead to our susceptibility to visual illusions, he added. <br /><br />Indeed, the aforementioned mathematician Paul Erdos demonstrated the power of empirical probability nicely as well. According to his biography, Erdos refused to accept the explanations of colleagues for the correct solution, and was eventually convinced only after he was shown a simple computer simulation than ran the problem hundreds of times. In other words, "after Erdos approached the problem like a pigeon, he was able to embrace the right answer," Herbranson said. <br /><br />Herbranson and his colleague Julia Schroeder detailed their findings in the February issue of the Journal of Comparative Psychology.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-55744907433047651892010-02-25T15:54:00.002-05:002010-02-25T15:56:35.672-05:00Feed Mayor Bloomberg, Breed A Rat<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/paypaul/3632298909/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3547/3632298909_9f8016116d_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/paypaul/3632298909/">Feed Mayor Bloomberg, Breed A Rat</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/paypaul/">ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ</a></span></div>Mayor Bloomberg, Breed A Rat<br />The criminal known as Mayor Bloomberg thinks he can sidestep the people and buy himself a third term. He hates pigeons because they would tell on him in a New York Minute. The logic that Scumberg presents that by feeding pigeons will only bring on rats is flawed. Rats don't need pigeon food to find sustenance. Don't feed the mayor and his one man political machine. It's time for a real change in New York City. It's time to end his reign of arrogance.<br clear="all" />New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-4171468258860286982010-01-27T20:14:00.001-05:002010-01-27T20:17:02.527-05:00Bob Barker Donates $1 Million to Save PA PigeonsWednesday, January 27, 2010<br /><strong>Bob Barker donates $1 million to save PA pigeons </strong><br />A TV icon is taking a stand for the pigeons of Pennsylvania.<br /><br />Bob Barker, the former game show host and one of the nation's most generous animal philanthropists, has donated $1 million to stop pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania and says he will be joining protestors outside a Bensalem gun club where shoots are being held regularly. <br /><br />Barker said the donation will go to SHARK, an Illinois-based animal activist organization dedicated to putting a stop to these shoots.<br /><br />The organization plans weekly demonstrations at the Philadelphia Gun Club in Bucks County which two years ago began holding pigeon shoots despite a cease and desist order issued by Bensalem Township. In 2002 the township said the shoots violated local firearms laws and constituted animal cruelty. The club recently filed suit against activists and neighbors for harassment.<br /><br />Barker also said he will support legislation being considered in both the state House and Senate that would ban the use of live pigeons for targets and make organizing or operating the shoots a crime. Animal rights activists in Pennsylvania have been fighting to win passage of anti-pigeon shoot legislation for two decades.<br /><br />Pennsylvania is the only state where live pigeon shoots are openly practiced, according to the Humane Society of the United States. The contests - held at gun clubs, most of them in Berks County - involve launching pigeons from spring-loaded boxes where shooters fire on them at close range. Many wounded birds are scooped up - often by children - their necks broken and the carcases disposed of. But other injured birds end up outside of the clubs only to suffer a slow death from their wounds. <br /><br />“The very characteristics of a live pigeon shoot are such that the event cannot be held without causing extensive animal suffering,” said Barker. “Live bird shoots are held under the guise of ‘sport’ target practice But they offer neither sport nor hunting.”<br /><br />The Humane Society of the United States estimates that about 22,000 live birds are used as targets every year in Pennsylvania.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-75617368403426784282009-11-25T11:37:00.005-05:002009-11-25T11:44:01.722-05:00Avitrol Kills Blackbirds in New JerseyHealth Officer Exterminates Wrong Birds in NJ <br /><br />It was NY parks commissioner Thomas P. F. Hoving who dubbed pigeons "rats with wings," a term that fourteen years later was popularized by Woody Allen in his 1980 flick “Stardust Memories.” So surely there's some blood on their hands in the war on the pigeon community in New York (only recently was a National Pigeon Day established to combat the haters).<br /><br />There are a lot of pigeons around though, and everything from Robo-Hawk to Pigeon Czars have been considered in controlling the population, but it's sort of rare that we hear the words "pigeon extermination." Turns out some folks across the Hudson (specifically, Fort Lee Health Officer Steven Wielkotz) turned to the chemical Avitrol "to get rid of more than 100 pigeons that descended on the area around town hall two months ago," according to WCBS. Avitrol, by the way, "kills the pigeons by first causing them to suffer seizures and then cardiac arrest." <br /><br />Wielkotz's master plan to wipe out the pigeons didn't quite go as planned, however, because the grackles ate the seed instead. 30 of those birds have since died—and Mayor Mark Sokolich says children were seen trying to save the dying birds.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-55587074951284453612009-09-01T11:19:00.005-04:002009-09-01T11:29:06.265-04:00Pigeons -- the most intelligent of the bird species<strong>Birds of a feather drink together: The three clever pigeons who help each other sup from a water fountain</strong><br /><br />They obviously have a better class of pigeon Down Under. <br /><br />Instead of pecking around on the filthy pavements among cigarette butts and chewing gum, they prefer to sip filtered water and go to great lengths for a bath. <br /><br />The trio pictured in the article, in Brisbane, Queensland, appear to have worked out a clever system of adapting the water fountain built by humans for their own pigeon purposes. <br /><br /> Coo-l: drink: As one pigeon sucks up water (left), another stands on the lever (right) and the third keeps watch<br /><br />After waiting for the fountain to be free, one bird jumped on the lever and pushed it down to fill up the bowl, while another kept watch and the third splashed in. <br /><br />When it had drunk its fill and cleaned its feathers, the third pigeon hopped up to the handle and let his friends have a go. <br /><br />The three birds continued their bathing ritual for ten minutes, entertaining passers-by in Post Office Square, in Brisbane's bustling business district. <br /><br />Unlike other birds, who take a sip of water and throw back their heads to swallow, pigeons suck up water using their beaks like straws. <br /><br />Though they aren't very popular in this part of the world and are referred to as rats of the sky, pigeons - even the English ones - are considered among the most intelligent of all the bird species.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-37271637017988244952009-07-02T00:48:00.002-04:002009-07-02T00:51:19.369-04:00Reading the Brains of Pigeons in FlightNew York Times<br />June 30, 2009<br />Observatory<br />Reading the Brains of Pigeons in Flight <br />By HENRY FOUNTAIN<br />Ever wonder what goes on inside the minds of pigeons?<br /><br />No? Researchers in Europe have. <br /><br />Alexei L. Vyssotski of the University of Zurich and colleagues have studied the brain activity of homing pigeons as they fly over visual landmarks.<br /><br />How homing pigeons find their way back to a starting point is not completely known. Studies have shown that the birds variously use the position of the sun and the earth’s magnetic field as a compass, and sense of smell and visual cues as navigation aids. But the use of visual cues has been difficult to study, because if a bird flies over a landmark and doesn’t change its course, it’s impossible to know whether the bird has not perceived the cue or is ignoring it.<br /><br />The researchers developed tiny neurologgers, to record electrical activity in the pigeons’ brains as they flew. The birds also carried small global positioning system units to track position. By matching brain activity to location, the researchers could determine the effect of flying over a landmark.<br /><br />The birds’ flights began over water, a relatively featureless environment, and then continued over land to a homing point. This enabled the researchers to determine brain activity as the birds reached the coastline and then flew over other landmarks.<br /><br />They found that activity in both high- and mid-range frequencies occurred as the birds passed over a landmark. The researchers, who reported their findings in Current Biology, suggest that the mid-range frequencies are linked to the perception of visual information, while the high-frequency activity may be related to cognitive processing — perhaps the recognition of a landmark as something the bird has seen before.<br /><br />The researchers also observed strong brain activity at two rural locations where there were no significant landmarks. On visiting the sites, the researchers found that both had colonies of wild pigeons, which was probably what caught the homing pigeons’ interest.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-67301226934747983602009-06-24T10:14:00.007-04:002009-06-24T10:34:25.193-04:00Pigeon Oral Contraception Legalized in New York State"Birth Control" for Pigeons Now Available in all 50 States <br /> <br /><br />RANCHO SANTA FE, CA - Innolytics, LLC announced today that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation ("NYDEC") became the 50th and final state to grant registration for OvoControl® P in pigeons. The first of its kind, the new product effectively controls egg hatchability in pigeons and essentially represents non-hormonal oral contraception for birds. <br /><br />OvoControl P (nicarbazin) was registered by the US Environmental Protection Agency in May 2007. Following a federal registration, each state requires its own State Registration and the registration process in New York can be especially thorough. <br /><br />"Support for the approval of OvoControl in New York spanned a cross-section of stakeholder groups," said Erick Wolf, CEO of Innolytics.". The company collaborated with the office of State Senator Eric Schneiderman (D-31st) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to support the approval of the new technology in New York." <br /><br />"Other communities and businesses across the US are adopting birth control to help reduce the population of these invasive birds thereby reducing what they leave behind," said Wolf. "New York represents a very large market where the pigeon problem is widespread and has limited control options. Pest Management Professionals and their customers are increasingly adopting low-impact solutions that effectively control the underlying local pigeon population." <br /><br />"Pigeons are a fact of life for New Yorkers," said James Freedland, a spokesperson from Senator Schneiderman's District Office in Northern Manhattan. "This technology is a safe, humane and effective tool to help manage pigeon overpopulation in and around our city and state."<br /><br />Birth control for birds is also advocated by animal welfare organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States. "The Humane Society of the United States supports non-lethal wildlife management because it works," said Laura Simon, Field Director for Urban Wildlife Programs with the Humane Society of the the United States in Connecticut. "Simply killing birds is not a long-term or effective solution. A comprehensive program to reduce conflicts with pigeons should include reproductive control with other proven non-lethal approaches," added Ms. Simon. <br /><br />In addition to exclusion and control of feeding, OvoControl P represents yet another component in an integrated program of pest bird management. The new product is available through licensed pest control professionals in New York. In combination with other mitigation measures, OvoControl P results in a more comprehensive and effective, long-term control program. <br /> <br /><em>Established in 2003, Innolytics, LLC is a privately held company which focuses on developing humane population management technology for wildlife. For further information see the company website at www.ovocontrol.com. <br /><br /># # #<br /><br />Contact: Erick Wolf, CEO, Innolytics, LLC Tel: 858.759.8012 -- email erick.wolf@cox.net <br /> </em>New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417823178869258168.post-34581054725657351902009-06-14T09:20:00.001-04:002009-06-14T09:23:07.251-04:00National Pigeon Day? New York Bird Club Looks to make it happen<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-44qyJ3oePhcotXOzdkk2zSF0fww_bUvnmk0JBUS1Hr79YMXmZQrNdGTDpx8KNH11gqGr29Vks6E4KSEMC5QDSFTrLBcSxPouu_yefgnzJMHmZPIEDctGsxxcw_VgRuIdc_Dudhg-k8/s1600-h/alg_pigeons.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-44qyJ3oePhcotXOzdkk2zSF0fww_bUvnmk0JBUS1Hr79YMXmZQrNdGTDpx8KNH11gqGr29Vks6E4KSEMC5QDSFTrLBcSxPouu_yefgnzJMHmZPIEDctGsxxcw_VgRuIdc_Dudhg-k8/s320/alg_pigeons.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347173005775061618" /></a><br />Amos Latteier in his pigeon suit talks to Anne-Marie Richard about her gallery's pigeon-inspired art, as they advocate for the establishment of National Pigeon Day on June 13.New York Bird Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09847836211109918425noreply@blogger.com1