Many concerned folks find a Racing Pigeon, they seek help to get the bird back to his/her owner.
I admire your intentions a great deal for being concerned about the Pigeon, however here's something for you to think about.
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What happens to lost pigeons,
in racers'/fanciers' own words, which is a very small sample of such messages posted to their own, restricted membership email discussion groups (unless otherwise noted):
To read about more abuses, click on Killing Pigeons for Ego, Profit, and Fun and Competitive Pigeon Racers'/Fanciers' Attitudes

Note: It is a customary practice of competitive pigeon racers to kill lost birds they retrieve after being found and reported by concerned people. The hapless bird may be the result of "basket culling" in the first place, which means that birds are carelessly released far from home and any who don't make it back to their family and friends (in essence, abandoned) are deemed not worthy of keeping, anyway.

A tactic to build and maintain a false public image by the competitive pigeon racing community is to assure finders that lost birds are welcome back home, even though they will actually be killed -- if not immediately, most likely in the very near future because their failure to return home proved to their owner that they are no longer worthy of being alive.


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From: Harry Hill [Maverick Loft]
. . .
I got a message yesterday ... [about] a call from a lady with a lost bird... ... She is afraid if she returns it to its owner it will be killed... I will contact the birds owner and let him know what is happening with the bird and we'll see what happens from there. The lady wants to make it a pet if it will be killed so I hope the owner of the bird will let her have it.

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From: Harry Hill [Maverick Loft]
. . .
...if I can find the legal owner he or she could claim the bird. I'm trying to locate the owner, what I want to avoid is having a situation where the legal owner contacts the animal lover and says to kill it or picks it up and kills it. That happens ... often. I got a call about a lost bird once and contacted the owner to pick up their bird. They didn't want to but I explained it was the responsibility of the owner to collect lost birds. This person went to where the bird was, collected it and as he walked back to his car he pulled its head in front of the rescuers and threw it in the trash can. I got the call from the rescuers who were all upset and could not understand why someone would do something like that. ...we do have to be discreet in how we do this in front of others...

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Subject: ... What to do with them all...
From: Eleanor D Souza - Lady Flyer - 1212 Loft
I for one would not want all my racers to return -- where would I put them? What would I do with them? ...

... Racers that have done nothing as a young bird or as a yearling and show no signs of being a potentially good breeder are culled. Yes. Culled [killed]. ... I haven't come across anyone wanting to keep a pigeon as a pet and I wouldn't give a cull to anyone wanting to improve their stock. ...I don't have the time, money, or energy to keep birds that have not proven themselves as racers nor showing potential in being a good breeder.


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Subject: Re: Mike Sordahl--"Keep the best cull the rest."
From: Mike Thomas
I have been breeding pigeons for over twenty-five years ... Normally I raise around fifty birds each year. I train hard and ... some birds can't take daily training [meaning, they don't make it home and are lost in the wild to die] ... I have never had more than two or three that I have kept at the end of the year. Everything else is culled. Since I don't fly oldbirds [sic] if the bird does not produce in the breeding loft as a yearling then it is also culled.

Sounds harsh, but I am interested in winning. ...
. . .
To be successful in pigeons you have to treat them like a business...


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Subject: CULLING
From: Andrei
For the homing pigeons culling isn't necessary because you can fly them and those that aren't good enough will be lost. If a bird comes from the races late every time and it isn't in the prizes you simply send it to a longer race and if it comes you send to a longer one and so on.



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Subject: Re: Culling (Animal Dave) BY Kenneth Oliver
From: Skyrac 4370 [SkyRacer Lofts]
If [a person against lethal culling] were a pigeon in my loft [it] would be culled... FACT NOT FICTION.
. . .
If you race your birds and lose one what do you think happens to it? More than likely it will die a slow death of starvation or be food for some hawk. I'll be ---- if I will feed them hawks. Over their dead bodies!!



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Click on this line to see a very special page re: Steve Souza

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Subject: Returning Lost Racers
From: goosegirl...
Newsgroup
... I once met a pigeon guy at the feed store who raced pigeons; he said if a bird of his got lost, and was returned to him by a person, he just snapped the bird's neck for being a lousy racer....


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Subject: YB races
From: Chris ... Drummond

By cutting YB losses, we hope to 'appear' as though we are more concerned for the birds.
Subject: Racers 1st-White dove 2nd

In regards to the white bird release business... I got all the white birds I could lay my hands on and flew them through the races... What is left, are what I bred....
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I have been rescueing Pigeons/Exotics/Wildlife for many years now, if you find a Racing Pigeon please water and feed the bird wildbird seed, let the bird be. eventually the bird will move on, birds (all birds) frequent the bird feeders, having a Pigeon around looking for food and a drink is no different than any other bird, weather banded or not, simply leave the bird alone as you would any other bird, there chance of survival is much greater.

BrokenWing

__________________

When all is done that is asked from me and I can fly no higher, I pray this day his hand extends to welcome home a flyer.
Author : http://www.pigeonrescue.com/
Website:http://pigeonworld.informe.com/index...e3a2a754004832
Watch: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...29577913622678
Sign: http://www.all-creatures.org/alert/alert-20070124.html
E-Mail tallship30@yahoo.com

Pigeon Fancy is Not Composed of Immutable Fact
The pigeon fancy is not composed of immutable fact but rather (in many cases) hilarious fiction. Allow me the opportunity to list several of the selection criteria used by many (these are all criteria that I have seen applied). These fanciers, on the surface seem to be otherwise sane and rational racing pigeon enthusiasts. Are they possibly misguided? All of the following observations have been used as faults by many fanciers and serious faults by some fanciers. These dubious selection criteria result in many birds being ultimately culled.
1) Pigeons with black tongues culled
2) Pigeons with little white spots on back of throat culled
3) Pigeons with weak backs culled
4) Pigeons with weak vents culled
5) Pigeons with poor feather culled
6) Pigeons with poor wing configuration culled
7) Pigeons with poor eye sign culled
8) Pigeons with too deep a keel culled
9) Pigeons that are too small culled
10) Pigeons that are too big culled
11) Pigeons that are too flighty culled
12) Pigeons with hard muscle culled
13) Pigeons with inadequate muscle culled
14) Pigeons who do not have sensitive pressure points culled
15) Pigeons with poor flesh culled
16) Pigeons with too much flesh culled
17) Pigeons who do not turn their heads when you rub their vents culled
It is absolutely true that culling is essential to progress, but let us at least understand where and why it should and must be used in the sport of racing pigeons

Racing pigeons have been cultivated throughout history all over the world

BrokenWing

If you are not good at culling don't start in-breeding because strict culling is a given in this system.

Some fanciers start out on an in-breeding program but give up due to the number of culls that crop up. This should be welcomed. By getting rid of the culls you are making progress. You must persevere with the program and not make an outcross. An outcross produces variability and in-breeding is done to reduce variability, although in the beginning in-breeding would appear to heighten variability, that is until you have removed the undesirables.
With stock that is judged on outward characteristics, such as show-type birds, culling is easier. However our racing birds have many characteristics that are not easy to determine, such as homing instinct and constitution.

Racing-Pigeon-Fancier.com - Breeding

BrokenWing

Handling For Quality
When the experienced fanciers handle a racing pigeon they are assessing its racing ability by judging its aerodynamic soundness. Their skill has been taught by time and their success in predicting the quality of the race pigeon rests with the fact that the aerodynamics of every champion is sound. The "expert handlers" cull birds in the race team that handle poorly, because the chances of a poorly conformed bird doing well are extremely low. It is good practice to cull "poor" pigeons from the race team well before training begins, but the decision to cull must be made by a good "handler". Remember, the expert handler is always a very good flyer or breeder of pigeons and never a poor or mediocre fancier.

Bird Health - Racing Pigeons - Handling

BrokenWing

The problem with in-breeding to this degree is the aversion fanciers create in their own minds when they envisage a colony of cretins as has been known in closed communities amongst human beings. In-breeding in itself does not create the problem - it must firstly exist within the gene pool. Pigeons are different than humans - we eliminate the bad genes via racing/culling etc. but we cannot ethically do this with human beings (although looking at some of my neighbours : it should be compulsory!). In-breeding cannot produce better than the parents, it can only produce the same, but what can be better than the already best? Sometimes rogue genes are thrown up - these, the wise stockman eliminates via selection, should he miss noticing, then the race programme removes them eventually - they will manifest in reduced performance or loss. However fully tested stock rarely carry these rogue genes and that is why it is perfectly safe to pair brother X sister with the best representatives within a family.

Pigeon Racing - Boglin Marsh - The Racing Pigeon Fanciers Portal Archives

BrokenWing

Cull - An unwanted bird; or to eliminate unwanted birds. (to cull)

Common Pigeon Terms

The more I read about the so called prestigious sport of Pigeon racing, the more I think the racing Pigeon world is full of some very sick humans.
Either the necks are snapped or the unwanted birds are taken far from there loft and released adding to the feral population and thus adding to the publics image that these birds are filthy and disease carriers, mass poisonings are carried out all across the USA.
It’s no wonder I could not gain support from the Pigeon Racing World when placing my Federally Protect the Feral Pigeon petition in front of them to sign.
So….lets take our unwanted Pigeons far from home and turn them loose, this will make them the General publics problem and it will cost them to poison the Pigeons they have added to the problem.
Then I can sleep better at night…

Hmmmmmm, Maybe I am wrong…..but I think not!

BrokenWing

LOL Ginich

Sooooo, you have found a banded Racing Pigeon, would you try and find the owner knowing it is common practice within the so called (SPORT) to kill unwanted birds and or birds that are returned from being lost?
No not all Pigeon Racing people are alike, tell me...are you willing to risk the life of the Racer you have found?
I recently butted heads with a animal abuse official and found out the Racing Pigeon is only Federally protected within his/her loft, doesn't make sense but this is what was told to me..
As soon as the bird is released into a race they become fair game were the words written to me, this was quite awhile ago when I was fighting to shut down a certain site where hunters were killing Pigeons for the fun of it.
So I no longer have that email from the abuse investigator to post.
If you find a Racer, Please just let the bird be, there chances of survival are much better.
The Pigeon has a stacked deck against them, they are killed by there owners, they are mass killed by poisons, and the general opinion of these birds has fallen from grace, these birds are enduring so much suffering...Please....I beg you....PLEASE...just let them Be....
I can only pray while people are searching for help locating the Pigeons owner this thread pops up on the search engine they are using.
Feed and water the bird, they will greatly appreciate your kindness, but never...never try and find the owner of the bird...just let the bird be, eventually they will move on....
BrokenWing