By: Henk de Brueijs.

RAPTORS…………………a look into the future ?

Following the discussions regarding this subject in all kind of “pigeon” media  I like to give from this place an insight in this subject in The Netherlands.

The surface area of the UK is 6 times that of The Netherlands while the number of inhabitants is 3,6 times larger. The so called Randstad, a continuous development of industry and houses and an estimated population of 7.100,000 is one of the largest conurbations in Europe covering an area of just approximately 8,250 sq.km. ( 860 per sq.km). The ethnic groups are 80% Dutch and 20% “multi-cultural’. The House of Representatives has 150 members of which an important part “green” or same color thinking. Even a political party with the name “Animal Party” is represented with 2 members.

 In our neighborhood it happens already several times that families taking a walk through one of the very few woods were attacked by breeding raptors. The advice of the “authorities” was a simple “go out of their way”. Don’t think you can undertake any action. Once they are missing a moving “blip” of the chip on the screen they must find the bird or remains and will investigate the “case” as it was a murder. Fine, as one said € 3.500,00 only and if you have no luck even a sentence. Even you show them  the places where 30 or more rings are found they shrug their shoulders and has the opinion that nature has her own device.

What can the fancier do to solve this problem? As we noticed already a very few. The national federation of pigeon fanciers in The Netherlands undertook action to the authorities but till now without any result. What can we do by ourselves ? In my direct neighborhood we are with 4 fanciers within a radius of 300 meters. Last spring and summer we lost in the beginning altogether a 30 birds and 2 of my birds were found half eaten in the immediate vicinity of my home. Together with one fellow fancier we decided to toss the young birds every day at a distance of 40 km instead to let them fly out direct from the loft. As the lost birds were almost all youngsters we noticed also that the old pigeons get used to the raptor and followed their instinct. In the beginning you will lose also old birds but after a 3 or 4 weeks you will see a change in the way the pigeons are leaving the loft and their way of training. From the young birds we did not lose one single pigeon anymore  to the birds of prey. May be we were lucky but will see next month March. Follow our findings on the website: www.pigeoncare.nl

The only solution for this problem I can see is that our “superiors” in Brussels give a green light to do at least something to reduce this nuisance in the near future. With the present worldwide crises there are more important subjects to discuss but I’m sure that nobody will blame us if we talk with each other about this, for the pigeon fancier specific problem. .