Gentle Kings Need Help to Escape Cruel Fates

There is an epic but almost invisible drama at work in the Bay Area. Every week, unbeknown to most, local animal shelters get in a couple of beautiful, smart, all white birds called king pigeons. Most arrive as babies, only four weeks old, and they are usually weak and hurt. The few survivors that make it to the shelters have beat astronomical odds and yet they face euthanasia as their likely fate, unless they are rescued and adopted.

When I started volunteering at the San Francisco animal shelter in 2007, I had never heard of a king pigeon and I was surprised to learn that each week, these smart, gentle birds were found, wandering starved and often injured, in parks and around town. King pigeons are not wild. They are a domestic breed raised for meat. King pigeons are bred to be big (for maximum meat yield) and white (so their skin will be pink) and are factory-farmed or raised by backyard breeders. Squab (which means baby pigeon) is served in French, Italian, American haute and many Asian cuisines and is commonly sold live at poultry markets which is how a few king pigeons find their way to animal shelters rather than on to a dinner plate.

Baby pigeons are cute and, while most that are sold live are butchered and eaten, some are purchased and "set free" by well-meaning but misguided people. Domestic king pigeons have no survival skills and, at only four weeks old, the babies have never fledged (learned to fly) though, with their bred-to-be-big bodies, kings never achieve the flight skills required to evade hawks, gulls and ravens. Their snow white feathers make them highly visible targets and their long history of domesticity has robbed them of their ability to find food and water and shelter. The "lucky" few king pigeons that have escaped the butcher are usually killed by dogs, cats, birds of prey, cars and even mean people, often within hours of their "release". How cruel that their brief freedom ends so tragically.

Yet, miraculously, a very few do survive long enough to make it to an animal shelter. Unfortunately and ironically, despite having escaped the butcher and survived the wild, these even "luckier" birds are almost guaranteed to be euthanized rather than get out alive which, after all the odds they've beat, seems particularly unfair. Animal shelters are stretched to their limits trying to care for and adopt out all the puppies and kittens and bunnies and budgies. They don't have the resources to advocate for pigeons and people don't know that they're there needing homes.

Despite all their terrible luck, king pigeons are actually very beautiful, smart and charming creatures and, when I met a tame, sensitive pet king pigeon that, like all the others, was facing euthanasia, I knew I could find her a home and save her life. So I did. Since then, that effort has grown to become the nonprofit MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue with volunteers throughout the Bay Area. We've saved more than 400 birds from being euthanized in shelters.

King pigeons can live indoors as house pets (they can even wear pants) or outside year-round in an easy-to-create aviary. They are gorgeous, calm, simple to care for, smart and full of personality. And they want to live. MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue always has lots of king pigeons available for adoption. Please help us to save the lives of these gentle kings. You can foster, adopt, volunteer and donate in support of their care. Until there are homes for all, please- don't buy, don't breed, adopt!

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Published in the Marin Independent Journal 7/16/11 "Great Need to Save the Kings"

Elizabeth Young is an accidental pigeon rescuer and the founding director of MickaCoo.