Romans first to use pigeon power...
Pigeon-power was harnessed as a message delivery system by the Romans as long ago as the conquest of Gaul and has proved invaluable during wars ever since. Even after telephones were invented, pigeon post was considered a securer method.
Between 1943 and 1949, 32 pigeons were awarded the PDSA's Dickin medal, the Victoria Cross for animals, for heroism that resulted in the saving of human lives. Their ability to find their way home across hundreds of miles was found a new use when the sport of pigeon racing was developed.
The advent of the railways made it possible to transport the birds long distances for release at specially designated locations.
Later pigeon racing took to the roads and large air-conditioned vehicles today ferry the birds - sometimes as many as 6,000 a time.
The late Queen Mother was a keen pigeon fancier and the Queen is patron of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association.
But one of the sport's attractions has always been that the so-called ordinary working man with a small team of feathered friends can compete on an equal perch with the wealthy.
Various theories exist about how pigeons navigate their way. A recent study indicated they follow major roads.
But Paul Dook, Danny's father, disputes this. He sometimes releases Danny's young birds for training in Lincolnshire. "I can get on the A15 and do top speed back but you can bet the pigeons are all at home having their tea by the time I arrive.
I think they use landmarks like the Humber Bridge.
But it takes the young ones three minutes from the bridge to our house, so they can't be following roads." Despite their fantastic homing instinct, pigeons are still regarded as best baked in a pie by some people. And in Spain, a favourite dish is pigeon in chocolate. |
Fancy that!
When entering birds for a race, fifteen-year-old pigeon fancier Danny Dook tickles his pigeon's fancy - with a female bird. And it was a promise of some heavy coo-cooing in the coop that recently brought one of his pigeons back to 28th Avenue, North Hull, ahead of thousands of competitors.
It made Danny who suffers from autism a local champion.
Released on open ground in East London, Arthur's Boy flew like Cupid's Arrow covering the 154 miles home in just three hours and 53 minutes - two and a half minutes faster than the next best. "The females are taken away before a race and the cocks go absolutely divvy,"
Danny, a member of the Bridges Pigeon Club, told Hull in print. "It's all about sex drive. They know they're going to have a good time when they get home. "I took my best pigeons to the club where a lorry picked them up and drove them to the liberation point. Nearly 3,000 flew off. I was waiting at home but I didn't expect them back for ages.
Then I suddenly saw a speck in the sky and it was Arthur's Boy."
Danny has previously won about 30 certificates for placings within the first five of various races but this time he "topped the Fed." Bridges Club is one of 20 clubs in the Hull and District South Road Federation, which itself is one of three Federations covering the city and surrounding area. It's estimated the three have up to 2000 members out of some 80,000 fanciers in Britain as a whole.
Writing at a time when a pigeon loft, a whippet and flat cap were considered the prerequisites of the stereotypical Northerner, author George Orwell placed pigeon fancying alongside stamp collecting and coupon snipping as a particularly English eccentricity. More recently in the movie Little Voice, Ewan McGregor's character indicated the therapeutic value of pigeon lofts while confirming they still have a place in popular culture.
A separate world
But to outsiders, it comes as a surprise when Danny describes a whole separate world - one involving strict rules and regulations, split-second timings and its own vocabulary. In Hull it even has its own telephone hotline, the KC Pigeon Liberation Service.
On this Jim Hotham, chairman of the South Road Federation, records vital information he's collated, including at race weekends, the exact release time of birds and the prevailing wind direction. That helps owners make a rough calculation as to when their pigeons will come home to roost.
Danny had a troubled childhood but since entering this parallel pigeon universe he has flown on wings.
He keeps about 150 birds in the garden of the family home where he lives with his mother, Mandy, 33, father Paul, 40, and four younger brothers and sisters. His day usually starts by feeding his flock at 9am and then releasing them for an hour's exercise.
They're fed and exercised again at 5pm.
In between times, he cleans them out and has many other tasks. "Pigeon racing enables the owner to be breeder, dietician, manager, trainer, coach and competitor," states British Homing World, a weekly publication. Danny does all of those things.
After the racing season, he pairs birds up mid-December, so that the young called "squeakers" hatch around Christmas: "I go by using eye colours.
If one has a gold eye and another a dark eye, you can put them together, he explained."
In With The Wrong Crowd
But there can be setbacks. Despite their uncanny homing instinct, birds can get lost or killed.
Some avian athletes get in with the wrong crowd and, lacking care and attention, end up as 'flying rats' in city streets.
Danny had a major disappointment last year when over 100 of his stock died after he was apparently sold poisoned food: a hearing is pending.
Pigeons not only don't go cheap, they don't come it either. Like race horses, the high flyers are used at stud and their offspring are valuable.
Danny's father, a driver for a construction company, spent £4,500 buying new stock - but that's chickenfeed compared with the top price so far paid for a single bird - around £180,000 "It was awful to see the birds just dying in my hands," Danny recalled. "I don't like to get too attached to them.
If you get attached to them and you lose them, it's heartbreaking. I love watching them go and seeing them come back." Danny's parents believe his autism, a mental condition with a wide spectrum affecting a person's response to the outside world, has given him a special gift in relating to all creatures great and small. He also helps look after the family's six dogs, has gained certificates in small animal care at Bishop Burton College and, hoping to get a job with animals, has undertaken work experience at the RSPCA. Mandy said, "Pigeon racing has made a big difference to Danny.
He used to mess about and had no friends. It's given him an interest and kept him off the streets, away from any trouble.
He's now helping getting another young lad like him started with pigeons."
Sparked The Inspiration
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Danny: Enter the world of the pigeon fancier. |
Danny has himself been helped by family friends as well as by his parents.
Arthur's Boy was bred for him by family friend Arthur Credland while it was neighbour Jim Fordham who previously kept pigeons that sparked the initial inspiration.
Danny used to assist Jim clean out his loft, then he wanted for his own first loft for Christmas seven years ago.
"He was a very keen kid, very keen, and it never left him," said Jim. "You get people who are keen when they first start but it wears off because you have to do a lot of hard work.
Danny carried on so I knew there was something in it.
He's patient with the birds and that's what you have to be." A retired docker, Jim remembers a time when he and his workmates kept pigeons on allotments on Hedon Road, near to King George Dock.
Jim added, "It's very time-consuming. A few divorces have come about because of pigeons.
A wife has said it's either me or them - and he's said, 'It's the pigeons."
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