June 2009 Rescue Updates

Watch adopter Jenn Phipps' video about her king pigeon, Journey




KING PIGEON EMERGENCY UPDATE 6/26:

I just spoke with one of the Animal Control Officers that was called out to rescue the SF kings on Tuesday. He said that, in addition to the 35 they brought in (which were all huddled together and pitiful which is not surprising since they are just babies barely old enough to self-feed), they found 15 that were already dead, saw one being carried away by a hawk and had to leave others behind that were hiding in dense poison oak that they were unable to penetrate. Bystanders told him that they saw a monk dump the birds. There is a Buddhist tradition of releasing animals but I don't know for sure what the purpose in this case was.

To date, four of the 35 dumped baby king pigeons has been adopted, a sick one that I brought home to care for has died, and 14 others are to be adopted by two Southern California rescuers next week. The remaining 16 are in dire need of good, safe, responsible homes.

KING PIGEON EMERGENCY:
Yesterday, 6/22, SF ACC Animal Control Offiers were called out and picked up 35(!) king pigeons that had been dumped (a crime) by the statue on Brotherhood Way near Lake Merced in SF. It is thought that they may have been used (stupidly) for a wedding release. King pigeons are domestic and, when released into the wild, just stand around unsure of what to do and having no place to go. If left "free", they are quickly killed off by dogs, hawks, cats, cars, starvation and even mean people. Now these sweet birds are all at VERY high risk of euthanasia unless adopters step forward. Contact SF ACC for more information.

San Francisco Animal Care & Control
1200 15th Street (at Harrison) · San Francisco CA 94103
415-554-6364





June 5, 2009

I just went outdoors to clean the loft, change water and feed the pigeons but everybody was so sacked out and comfy that I decided to leave them be for awhile. It's like they all decided to take the day off and are lounging around together in the grass (which I may need more of if this keeps up).



Everybody hanging out and chilling together except for- Frances. Frances: my anti-social-except-with-me, Mr. Magoo-like pij that brings the thought 'Strange Child', to mind when I watch him marching around my house. (Strange Lady is what I should be thinking as I'm the one with a pigeon marching around my house.)



These pictures were taken at the same time- Frances napping alone on the North side of the loft and everybody else (who isn't sitting on eggs) hanging out on the West side. Frances is quite a character.



Lots of updates coming- the oops babies are out of the nest, Bean has a boyfriend, June Bug is stable but not really improving, Mickaboo volunteer Katie did an awesome king pigeon promo video for me and volunteers Cheryl and Patty are doing online postings to help outreach on behalf of all the kings pigeons that need homes... I'll be posting these stories and more over the next couple of days but right now I have to go pick up some doves that are being surrendered to MickaCoo by an owner who can no longer care for them.

Until there are homes for all of them, don't buy, don't breed- adopt.