Palomacy — It's Pigeon Diplomacy
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Articles Archive

FROM Elizabeth Young, Palomacy—Pigeon and Dove Adoptions
February 2021

Hope for the Animals Podcast – Episode 6: Bird Brainpower and Rescuing Pigeons with Elizabeth Young - Listen HERE.

The shelters didn't know what to do with them. And they didn't publicize them. They didn't name them. They didn't take them to adoption events or anything like that. They didn't put them on the website. So, you know, unsurprisingly, they didn't get adopted. So... Elizabeth hadn't intended to start a rescue, but now with Polomacy, Pigeon and Dove Adoptions, she has saved the lives of more than a thousand birds directly and helped countless others across the country and beyond.

Elizabeth's aviary, photo by Heather Finnecy

So polomacy means pigeon diplomacy. And we actually had to invent a word for what we were doing because nobody was doing it. There are along with all the city pigeons, the feral pigeons that everybody's familiar with, there are literally millions of domestic pigeons who mostly and some who are bred and used for all kinds of businesses and sports, quote, unquote, you know, air quotes around sports, hobbies. There are lots of casualties that result. And they're totally predictable. And they're actually treated as if they are disposable.

Photo by Jenna Close

And most of them who get hurt when they're being used in these different ways, just die out in the world because everything eats pigeons and doves. So they don't last very long. But a few lucky, the lucky of the luckiest to get hurt, but get found and get taken to a shelter, were then being killed. They'd stand in a cage for a week.

And the shelters didn't know what to do with them. And they didn't publicize them. They didn't name them. They didn't take them to adoption events or anything like that. They didn't put them on the website. So, you know, unsurprisingly, they didn't get adopted. And it was just this cycle and they were just kind of, again disposable.

All the other animals had, you know, everybody, everybody had at least one rescue, especially here in the Bay Area. I mean, we had rescues for neonatal kittens. We have rescues for old dogs, senior dogs, mutt bulls, amazing what they do, we have rescue for black dogs and cats because they're harder to place. You know not to mention all the rabbit and the rodent and the pocket pets and the parrot and farm sanctuaries all these rescues, except nobody was helping these domestic pigeons and doves.

Photo by Elizabeth Young

 

Please read the ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE WITH MORE PICTURES (PDF).

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