These days, in some social media, several people share a request for respect for the carrier pigeons that may stop to rest or feed during their journey from one end of Cuba to the other, as part of a pigeon fanciers' event.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- In these words, they ask to be allowed to continue on their way, as their owners are waiting for them. And that, more than satisfying the request of one or several people, would be fair; in the first place because the animals are alien and also because behind each flight there is an enormous effort in feeding and training.
What is happening nowadays during the competitions and exhibitions of carrier pigeons is not a new phenomenon; it dates from years ago and it has been a constant claim of the breeders, not only of people from Las Tunas but of the whole country because, in each opportunity, the losses are significant.
Some members of Cuba’s Pigeon Fanciers Federation explain that there are legal and illegal hunters who take advantage of the trips to appropriate the birds, despite being ringed and with their identification. The purpose may be their breeding or their slaughter.
They set traps on the banks of water bodies, hurt them with stone throwers, and make them victims of many other aggressions. Some even sell them on social networks, with total impunity. Alternatively, they damage them and abandon them to their fate, unable to fly or manage their food.
It is even known that the Animal Welfare Law (recently approved) is disregarded since the mistreatment goes as far as the amputation of a leg to remove the seal or the flight band that identifies that they are competing birds.
The protection of pigeons, even non-competing ones, requires citizen collaboration and a little empathy and respect for others. There are plenty of examples of the willingness of excellent human beings to shelter them to recover the energy lost during the flight.
Also, the actions of pigeon fanciers stand out; they teach that more than money, the animal is worth for its history, for what it represents for these people, for its use as a messenger, and because in its general health is the beauty of life, which triumphs over unscrupulous beings.
