The Harmful Reality Of Pigeon Racing
Pigeon racing has been around for a long time, and though it’s declining in popularity in the West, it’s increasing in Asia. Due to the way it’s conducted and the treatment of pigeons throughout the process, the authors of this paper argue that pigeon racing raises important ethical and welfare issues for the animals involved.
Pigeon racing involves the release of trained homing pigeons at set distances from their lofts, or homes. The pigeons then fly back to their lofts, and the time it took to return is recorded. The pigeon who flew the fastest is declared the winner. Pigeon racing also serves as a betting sport where wagers are placed on the bird expected to achieve the fastest flight.
The authors briefly discuss the advantages of pigeon racing for human racers (or “fanciers”), including social contact with pigeons and financial gains earned from betting and selling pigeons. However, the authors focus primarily on the potential harm and stress that racing pigeons experience. For example, pigeons who don’t perform well in races may be killed, and racing pigeons have no control over their lives — fanciers decide with whom and when pigeons can mate, when they can fly, and literally, how long they live. Fanciers may also neglect their pigeons.
Valuable birds are often prohibited from flying other than for a race, to avoid injury. Also discussed is the separation of pigeons from their partners and offspring until after a race is completed, seen as an incentive for a faster speed home. This is called “widowhood,” and it can cause emotional stress for the pigeons involved.
Welfare concerns also occur during transportation to races where pigeons are kept in close quarters, leading to infighting, pecking, and injury. Exhaustion, bad weather, and injury from collisions with fencing and other structures during training and racing can interfere with the birds’ navigation ability and their safe return home. This can force birds to join feral flocks where they have no survival skills, having been raised with complete dependence on humans.
When birds are injured, they are usually killed rather than brought to a veterinarian for treatment. Finally, fanciers may use performance-enhancing drugs that can impair pigeons’ immune systems and ability to regenerate feathers.
The authors suggest ways to improve the pigeon racing industry, such as limiting the distance of races to avoid overtaxing the pigeons and sterilization to reduce the killing of unwanted/low performing birds. However, they conclude that these measures may not be sufficient to address the ethical issues completely, and they doubt that pigeon racing could ever be truly ethical.
The authors then bring up the concept of de-domesticating pigeons (including racing pigeons and other pigeons kept in captivity), but they express concerns about the feasibility. Placing once-captive pigeons into the wild would result in their becoming feral, leaving them ill-equipped to survive on their own. Feral pigeons encounter numerous challenges in urban environments, such as inadequate nutrition, pollution, and increased risks of injury and disease.
As an alternative, the authors propose phasing pigeons out of captivity through a “no breeding” policy. Ultimately, the decision to pursue continued domestication, de-domestication, or a “no breeding” approach varies by context and circumstances (e.g., whether society will agree to treat feral pigeons with respect, and whether de-domesticated pigeons are at increased risk for injury in certain environments).
It appears that pigeon racing exploits the birds for the sake of human competition, disregarding their inherent instincts and welfare. As such, the authors conclude that the drawbacks of pigeon racing surpass its advantages and recommend banning it. They raise concerns about the suitability of pigeon-keeping in general and advocate for additional studies on the process of de-domestication. If de-domestication proves to be a challenge, they propose temporary continued domestication with strict regulations against breeding.
The ethical concerns addressed in this paper can readily be extended to other forms of animal racing, as it is inherently unnatural and exploitative for any animal. Animal advocates can raise public awareness of pigeon racing and the harmful effects it has on pigeons. They can also encourage policymakers to enact legislation against racing in favor of pigeon welfare.