
The Art of Racing Pigeons - lnguyen
https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texas-homing-pigeons-fly-home/
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jelliclesfarm
Basically they are exploiting the bird’s instinct to return home. It’s like
pigeon Hansel and Gretel roulette.

They get exhausted if they can’t make it back home and many die. [..] Pigeons
can mate for life, and both the cock and the hen take turns sitting on the
nest and feeding the hatchlings. Young homers are weaned and housed together
at about six weeks old. After a few days of acclimation, a door in their pen
is opened, and the birds begin to fly outside the loft but stick close to it.
They’ll flock together, flying big circles, until the day comes that they stay
aloft for an hour. That’s the signal, says Morse, that it’s time for road
training. The birds are taken five miles away from the loft and released.
“That first time, they make about thirty huge circles, figuring out where home
is. But they do figure it out.”

Morse will do five days at five miles, then two days of loft flying, a kind of
weekend of rest at home. The next week, it’s ten miles. When the birds start
arriving home before him, it’s time to stretch out their mileage—twenty miles,
then forty, sixty, and so on, until they successfully do one hundred miles
three times before their first race. The longer flights build endurance, but
it’s the early flights that reinforce the notion of home and the bird’s
ability to get there. In a race, you want a pigeon to break fast and sure
instead of wasting time circling or succumbing to the flock instinct and
following other birds. “People get in a hurry for training distance, which is
a mistake,” says Morse. “The five- and ten-mile trips are imperative. That
gets them confident.” [..]

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ksaj
This is correct. I have a pet pigeon who is very happy, and often quite
insistent, to be put back into his cage once he's had enough outside time. He
also makes it VERY clear when he doesn't want out of the cage.

The pigeons are trained when they have eggs or babies in their nest, since
they will be in such a panic to get back, they learn to be very quick about
the travel. It's certainly not very humane.

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jelliclesfarm
Pigeons are awesome. They have an instinct to nest and love and be loved. It
is cruel to do this for sport and profit.

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ksaj
It is true. My pet pigeon stomps his feet on the ground then joyfully runs to
me pretty much demanding to be picked up when I enter the room if I've been
elsewhere for any extended amount of time. And he likes to perch on my leg and
sleep when I have my feet up on the foot rest.

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jelliclesfarm
How is this not animal abuse?

