PIGEONS… AS PETS
By Ryan Martin
January 2025
There are thousands of types of pets in Canada, from massive English Mastiff dogs, to tiny African Pygmy Mice—pets that can fly in magnificent arcs, others that can slither behind the couch, and everything in between. They are people’s closest companions and protectors of the home, even if the only intruder is the mailman. However, for all the niches that pets can occupy, one has been removed as an option from the general public: the pigeon.
These small, typically grey birds that mass in the downtowns of nearly every North American city used to be relatively common as pets. Many flat roofs in cities of the pre-1960s had pigeon coops so residents could have a friend.[1] These coops offered places of refuge and shelter for these birds. Now the birds have been reduced to scavengers, feeding off garbage and flocking to lost lunches on the sidewalk.
Pigeons have been human companions as far back as ancient Egypt.[2] In ancient Rome, they were used to announce the winners of major sporting events, and Genghis Khan used these birds to create a system of communication relays that spanned Asia to Eastern Europe.[3] They have been prominent figures in religious writings, such as the doves (aka pigeons) that Noah sent as scouts from his ark, and as signs of peace, beginning in ancient Greek mythology.[4] The use of pigeons for communication was crucial as recently as World War II, when homing pigeons were used to carry messages from the front lines through battle zones.[5] At the end of the war, the British Government awarded them the Dickin Medal for “gallantry and devotion to duty.”[6]
Native to Europe and Southern Asia, pigeons were brought to North America with the European colonists as pets, along with various other animals.[7] They stopped being common pets due to the rise in the belief that they carry excessive amounts of disease, changing their reputation from one of beauty, usefulness, and ideal companionship, to “rats-with-wings.”[8] After two deaths in New York that were unjustly blamed upon the spread of disease by pigeons, owners began releasing their pet pigeons between 1960 and 1990, providing one more reason for pigeons to be located in such close proximity to people, as they are today.[9]
Pigeons make ideal pets. They are peaceful, intelligent, fiercely protective of their homes and care for their young.[10] It is nearly impossible to lose a pigeon as it can find its way home from as far as 1100 miles away.[11] They are beautiful animals, having historically been bred for beauty by many cultures. The ancient Greek poet Homer stated that their beauty made the ancient Greek city of Messene famous simply because of its pigeon tower.[12]
Pigeons’ reputation as ugly spreaders of disease is mainly due to the prominence of their poop in our downtown cores.[13] They are no more likely than a blue jay or a crow to spread diseases to you, and poop from any animal is something you should avoid. Recent articles that claim pigeons are vermin, only highlight rare examples of illnesses they have caused.[14] Pigeons have been unjustly vilified. They are not disease-ridden as is claimed.
Furthermore, pigeons are feral only because of European colonialism, which abandoned them, unprepared, in our urban environments. And we adjust our architecture to ensure that they cannot live near us comfortably. We install pigeon spikes, shock tracks, electric wiring, netting, and sloped exterior ledges among other things to repel them. We kick them away on our streets and wrinkle our noses at them, both literally and figuratively.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to walk out of a store with a fresh shirt only to find a pigeon was hidden overhead and had a bad breakfast. Anti-pigeon infrastructure should not be removed entirely, nor overnight, but the quantity could be significantly reduced by beginning to return respect for pigeons as animals. By reincorporating pigeon coops and aviaries into downtown residential buildings, we can remove their commanding presence on the street, and concentrate their droppings in smaller areas, reducing the money that cities need to spend on its removal. By allowing and even encouraging people to rehome these once beloved birds, we can return them to their former status, and as a nice bonus, we could join the rest of the world in enjoying the sport of pigeon racing.[15]
NOTES:
1. Ryan Mattimore, “Up on the Roof: The Revered, Reviled City Pigeon,” Stories: Streetscapes, May 17, 2016, https://www.mcny.org/story/roof-revered-reviled-city-pigeon.
2. Kate Dzikiewicz, “The Tragedy of the Most Hated Bird in America,” STORAGE ROOM No. 2, April 3, 2018, https://www.storagetwo.com/blog/2017/4/the-tragedy-of-the-most-hated-bird-in-america.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “Homing in on Pigeons’ Contributions to World War II,” National Air and Space Museum, March 16, 2021, https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/homing-pigeons-contributions-world-war-2#:~:text=Homing%206. Ibid.
7. Michael D. Shapiro and Eric T. Domyan, “Domestic Pigeons,” Current Biology 23, no. 8 (April 22, 2013), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.01.063
8 Kate Dzikiewicz, op. cit
9.. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “Pigeons as Pets: Outside or Indoors,” Palomacy Pigeon & Dove Adoptions, February 15, 2021, https://www.pigeonrescue.org/birds/pigeons-doves-as-pets/pigeons-as-pets-indoors-or-outside/.
12. “How Do Homing Pigeons Find Home?” Wonderopolis: Where the wonders of learning never cease. Accessed January 21, 2025. https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-homing-pigeons-find-home#:~:text=If%20taken%20a%20ways%20from,of%20up%20to%2090%20mph!
13. Matt Soniak, “The Origins of Our Misguided Hatred for Pigeons,” The origins of our misguided hatred for pigeons | Audubon, November 14, 2016, https://www.audubon.org/news/the-origins-our-misguided-hatred-pigeons.
14. Kate Dzikiewicz, op. cit.
15. Syedah Asma Andrabi and Dawoud Aamir Nehru, “Pigeons as A Carrier of Zoonotic Diseases to Humans”. Bio Vet Innovator Magazine, Vol 1 (Sept 2, 2024). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13629666.