The deadly odds of pigeon racing in the Philippines

MAY 17, 2019

by Cecil Morella

It is a brutal 600-kilometre gauntlet during which competitors face searing heat, wild seas, vicious predators, and the threat of kidnapping.

Only one in ten will finish.

This is the MacArthur competition—the Philippines' longest homing pigeon race. It's a tough challenge for the birds and a tense affair for the owners.

"Compared to Europe and the United States, we have lots of predators here and a lot of people who shoot these birds," said Jaime Lim, one of the Philippines' best-known pigeon fanciers—as the pursuit's devotees are known.

"Fishing nets are set up in the mountains to capture these birds. That's a major problem nowadays," the 68-year-old construction magnate added.

Racing pigeons can be worth thousands of dollars but some that are kidnapped are sold off to unscrupulous fanciers for as little as $14, Lim explained.

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Threat of no deal Brexit looms over British pigeon racing season

Pigeon racing from liberation sites in France could become a logistical nightmare.  CREDIT: PAUL GROVER/PAUL GROVER FOR THE TELEGRAPH 

 James Crisp, brussels correspondent4 APRIL 2019 • 4:21PM

The British pigeon racing season is at risk from a no deal Brexit, after the EU warned it would impose strict checks on birds crossing the Channel.

Every weekend from April to September, thousands of British pigeons travel in convoys of customised loft-lorries to liberation sites in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

An estimated 16,000 individual birds travel to France alone during the season when weather conditions are safe for channel-crossing on the return flight to the home lofts, hundreds of miles away. 

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Pigeon champion expelled for life over cheating claims

12 August 2016

A pigeon racing champion has been handed a lifetime ban from the sport following allegations he cheated to win a race from France.

Eamon Kelly, 52, was accused of cheating in this year's Tarbes Grand National, a blue riband event.

He allegedly registered 14 birds for the race, but kept them at home while sending decoys to Tarbes, France.

The National Flying Club said the 52-year-old, from Didcot, admitted to senior members that he cheated.

'Sad day for pigeon racing'

In a statement the association said: "This follows the falsification of [his] race entry for Tarbes Grand National race dated 19 July 2016.

"Mr E Kelly admitted [cheating] in telephone conversations with the president, chairman and secretary of the National Flying Club after the falsification was confirmed."

Mr Kelly won the 2015 Tarbes Grand National and was also an official race controller for the National Flying Club.

Before the allegations were uncovered, he was due to receive £1,500 in prize money and a £10,000 Ford Fiesta for defending the title.

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World of pigeon racing rocked by doping scandal

Doping has often tarnished the image of cycling, athletics and horse racing, but drug cheats have taken another sport to an unprecedented low.

The world of pigeon racing was rocked on Friday by the news that several specially trained ‘homer’ birds had been found with traces of cocaine and painkillers in their system.

Traces of the drug Mobistix, a medicine used by humans as a pain-killer, to combat fever and which also prevents inflammation, were found in five of the Belgian birds tested by a South African drugs laboratory, while cocaine was found in the blood of another bird.

The National Chairman of the Pigeon Fanciers Association Stefaan Van Bockstaele and the association’s Chairman of Sport Dirk Schreel were reported to be shocked when they received the test results. It was the second time the 20 samples in total had been tested after a laboratory in Belgian found no traces of drugs in any of them. The samples sent to South Africa were anonymous so the Pigeon Fanciers Association will not be able to take action against the owners of any of the pigeons

Belgian newspapers reported that during the next few months, the association will look at whether the South African lab will be given the task of analysing samples from Belgian pigeons in the future.

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