Is this common practice with pigeon keepers?

[jak2002003]

I stumbled upon this video on You Tube. It shows a guy pulling all the flight feathers from a pigeon while holding it in the air by its wing tips.

I was appalled and shocked and think this is very cruel. It must cause pain to the bird like us having out hair pulled out?

I may be quite wrong, so please correct me. Is this a common and acceptable practice for pigeon keepers to do this?

Surely just clipping or taping a few flight feather on one wing would be enough?

And the guy said the pigeon was born there and he did not want it to fly away as it is a domestic bird that would not survive in the wild. If it was born there why would it fly away?

WARNING... the video may upset some people.

 

[Pyxis]

I'm not a pigeon keeper but I would be appalled if this was common practice. Plus it's kind of stupid - if you clip the wings the feather follicle still reads it as the feather being there, and so doesn't grow a new one and the bird won't be able to fly until its next molt. Plucking the feathers leaves the feather follicle empty and it's just going to grow a new feather so you're going to have to pluck them again. My knowledge on this comes from parrots and not pigeons since as I said I don't keep pigeons, but the same thing would happen.

 

[jak2002003]

thanks for you reply. I am happy to know I am not the only one thinking this is wrong.

I posted this link of another site called pigeon talk. I got taken down by a mod who never even watched the video. I was really angry as I just wanted information about pigeon keeping and I thought that site was about that. Another poster said I should not post videos like that as it makes them popular.

I shared it to show how wrong it was and to make sure no one did this to their birds. I also wanted to really know if this was acceptable or not.

I think they just wanted to stick their heads in the sand.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have plucked damaged or clipped feathers from a bird to speed its ability to avoid predators but nothing like was shown on this video.

 

[laughingdog]

Its used by dog trainers and sport shooters only, as anyone who knows slightest about having kept birds or cares, knows you don't do that. That's just stupid and or sadistic. Pigeontalk mainly sadly for pigeon racers and showers, and because to promote their sport image, they try to make it look like all pigeon keepers are great people. They won't allow talk at all of humanely culling meat birds for food or mercy killings when needed, but people post about stomping to death etc methods of horrible death for non show or racing quality birds.

 

[jak2002003]

Its used by dog trainers and sport shooters only, as anyone who knows slightest about having kept birds or cares, knows you don't do that. That's just stupid and or sadistic. Pigeontalk mainly sadly for pigeon racers and showers, and because to promote their sport image, they try to make it look like all pigeon keepers are great people. They won't allow talk at all of humanely culling meat birds for food or mercy killings when needed, but people post about stomping to death etc methods of horrible death for non show or racing quality birds.

I get really upset when lots of people on the site started verbally attacking me and saying I was cruel because I advised someone who was getting overpopulated with pigeons to throw away any new eggs the pigeons had an replace them with dummy ones.

The said it was animal cruelty... to an EGG. And then they told me to not post on that thread anymore.. very aggressively, after I asked any of them if they eat chicken eggs and if they thought that was cruel too!!!

 

[Hokum Coco]

I get really upset when lots of people on the site started verbally attacking me and saying I was cruel because I advised someone who was getting overpopulated with pigeons to throw away any new eggs the pigeons had an replace them with dummy ones.

The said it was animal cruelty... to an EGG. And then they told me to not post on that thread anymore.. very aggressively, after I asked any of them if they eat chicken eggs and if they thought that was cruel too!!!

I have been around the sun almost 67 times.
One thing I learned in those years there is a segment of the population that would complain on " VIEWING A RAINBOW."

How can you know if someone is a "VEGAN"?
You do not have know to they will tell you.

 

[QuoVadis]

I think some people use something like this as a way to settle older birds (whether new or born at your place but strong on the wing) so they don't fly to far the first time they fly and get lost. They do it because if you pluck the feather it will regrown fairly quickly, so you can get the bird accustomed to it's surroundings before it can fly as well. Obviously, if you have hawks around that would not be a good idea since the pigeon would be very vunerable. What I don't get is why he pulls feathers from both wings - he could accomplish the same thing by pulling far less feathers if he did it all from one wing. I think I far better method is either using little rubberbands around the flights on one side, or soaping/wetting the bird so they can't fly until they have dried off. I don't think it takes that long to settle a bird - you just have to keep them from bolting the instant they are set free, so pulling feathers is not needed... that said I don't exactly think this is cruel - unpleasant yes, but human routinely pluck hair around eye brows or wax their legs etc., and while it isn't fun, it's not really that painful. If the goal is to keep the bird from flying off (and then it would most likely die). It may not the best (or even a good) way to settle a bird, but I also don't think it is cruel. Many things we do for the good of our animals isn't pleasant for them at the time.

 

[laughingdog]

Yanking feathers in mass like that is like but lot worse than taking as much thick hair at time and yanking out scalping someone.. Plucking each at time carefully from base isn't nearly as bad, as feather follicles full of blood vessels nerves etc.. Trimming or only plucking five to six feathers on only one wing works better for non morons who know something actually and care about what they are doing, though most don't.

 

[appps]

thanks for you reply.  I am happy to know I am not the only one thinking this is wrong.

I posted this link of another site called pigeon talk.  I got taken down by a mod who never even watched the video.  I was really angry as I just wanted information about pigeon keeping and I thought that site was about that.  Another poster said I should not post videos like that as it makes them popular.

I shared it to show how wrong it was and to make sure no one did this to their birds.  I also wanted to really know if this was acceptable or not.

I think they just wanted to stick their heads in the sand. 

I can see what they are saying though, the more views a video gets the higher it moves up the YouTube search results so the more chance someone will watch and copy. The more links to a video online the further it moves up the Google search results so every time you paste the link (including when people quote you) you increase his web presence. I'm not going to watch it as really don't want to help the guy get views. A lot of views gives a video credence. Your description is quite enough without the need for the link, which if it were me, I would remove from the post.

The breeder I got mine from just trimmed feathers the same as with any other bird breed you don't want to fly. The guy in your video sounds like a cruel idiot and I think common sense should tell us it's not acceptable.