Homing Pigeons

The ancient sport of racing pigeons was first mentioned in literature as a sport by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle who lived in Greece between 384 and 322 BC. the Sultan of Baghdad had the first pigeon messenger service mentioned in 1150. Ancient Roman towers attached to dwellings had Cotes (aviaries) that could house over 5,000 birds. All pigeons are descendants of the wild rock dove (Columbia livia). Starting with a pair of racing pigeons the first egg is laid but not set upon until a day later when a second egg is laid and then the hen sets on it between 4 PM and 10 AM when the cock sets until 4 PM. After sharing the brooding for 17 or 18 days the eggs hatch by the chick pushing it's beak with what is called a beak tooth through the shell to start the process of emerging. It is a great treat to see this bit of so undeveloped protoplasm with big eyes and a head flopping from side to side while muscles are adjusting to life and the parents treating it so delicately while delivering the first food. The first food is called pigeon milk and offered in small amounts by both parents. Every child should have the thrill of observing this wonder of nature. The chicks grow even while watching them so that they double in weight in 24 hours. Both parents share the feeding until about the 14 to 17th day when the cock takes over exclusive feeding. The partially digested food is regurgitated into the ever ready young. By 32-35 days the chicks are covered with feathers and attempting to flap their wings and may be placed in a young bird enclosure where there seems to be a good natural camaraderie with no disagreement while learning to fly. The enclosure is then opened and there it is interesting to see the youngsters considering flying in the great outside. One after another try with all sorts of results. Some fly a few feet and back for a clumsy landing immediately and some fly straight away until landing in a tree and gathering their strength to fly back to the loft. In a few days when released they all seem to rush for the outside where they are air borne immediately. After a week or so of getting familiar with the immediate area around the loft the birds are crated and taken to a point in sight of the loft and released. They take off as a flock and often fly, circulating at a greater an greater distances for sometimes 10 minutes before returning. There are many formulas for training. I usually take the young birds a mile away for 3 times and then 3 times 10 miles away followed by 50 miles and more as time permits. Training your own birds has a disadvantage as you never see the birds return as they are home long before you. The object from this point on is to give the birds the opportunity to develop to their potential as athletes to compete in races. Of course it is not the birds that compete but the flyer of the birds. It takes three ingredients to have success in pigeon racing. First the genetic material must be present. Second the husbandry including feeding and caring for them and third, proper training.
A few days after hatching a permanent band unlike any other is placed on one leg of the hatchling. A list of birds being entered in a race is created with the band number and the crated birds are presented the night before a race at a pigeon club. Each bird has a temporary band placed on a leg to be removed when the bird arrives home when it is removed, placed in a capsule and placed in a timing clock for a committee to consider in determining the place among all the birds in the race. The one with the shortest time is the winner. Today with electronics advancing as they are the registration as to the time the birds return is done electronically. Racing is exciting waiting for the birds to return and finding one bird arriving many minutes before expected and wondering if that bird is a winner. From personal experience I can attest to the fact that pigeon flying and racing is an interesting and exciting sport that is often a family affair that rivals most family endeavors. This is a sport that gets little publicity but there are pigeon flyers in most communities. Search for someone in your community with a loft for personal advice. Phone a veterinarian's office for an address of one or a feed store who sells pigeon food for a contact. With the sport comes a financial incentive for some as there are many dollars rewarded for first prize money in many races. Such as from one to 50,000 dollars. In clubs there is prize money for different categories and races. A 100 mile race is considered a short race and a 400 or 500 mile race is considered long. On returning from a race the birds strut around as if kings or Queens of the loft and if your bird is a winner you qualify to do a little strutting yourself. A comment I think is important is that pigeons rarely pass excrement other than when perching and save most of it for statues and fronts of buildings. Seagulls on the other hand- well enough is enough.

The Torture of Leg-hold Traps

A series of events over a long span of time led me to spend considerable time in actively opposing the legality of the use of leg-hold traps. As a youngster during depression years I set trap lines and used leg-hold traps to trap skunks for their hides that brought in one dollar each. From that experience and others I was pronounced an "expert witness" by a Judge of the Rhode Island
Superior Court and informed by that Judge that I would be henceforth an "expert witness" in any court in our country. The whole question of torture has been in our news recently resulting in an overwhelming reaction indicating that most people are in opposition to torture, at least of humans, unless there is an almost impossible reason. The word includes emotional as well as the thumb screw type of pain. We humans are not as concerned with torture when it is out-of-sight. This is a problem with the thinking of even a civilized population such as ours concerning the use of steel traps. Who are the proponents of the use of these devices? First there are game keepers who insist these traps are necessary to control overpopulation of game but these are in the minority compared to those who make money by trapping and those who support them such as the leadership of the National Rifle Association and Ducks Unlimited. To satisfy myself as to opinions concerning the legitimacy of these devices, I wrote to many who should be authorities on the subject of pain in infra human animals and published a book on the subject. Not only were the opinions similar but many were literary gems of wording with not one negative expression. In my State of Connecticut at that time we were not successful in passing legislation but with the publicity aroused the number of licenses issued by our Fish and Game Commission fell from about 2,000 a year to about 200 today. All of the Deans of schools offering degrees in Veterinary Medicine I contacted were of similar opinion that all animals feel pain and as many expressed it that without feeling pain an animal would not survive long. In our country the humane groups have been so successful in condemning leg-hold trapping that few women in our country would be seen wearing a wild animal fur. Soon fall will be here and the trappers will once again get their traps out and set and somehow justify their use to themselves and their children that torture is acceptable if only dumb animals are tortured. The horror and flaunting of respect for defenceless creatures is repulsive and inexcusable. Can we say we live in a civilized society?

The New Haven Central Hospital for Veterinary Medicine

The history of the evolution of the veterinary practice of infra human animals in many ways attempts to emulate the human practice. Some great institutions as in Boston and New York as well as associated with each university offering a degree in vet. medicine come close to equaling the human efforts. Those of us not associated with the ultimate have other standards of excellence.It is impossible for my profession to reach the degree of specialization of the human profession. For example I asked a board certified ophthalmologist if he was interested in a corneal problem I had recently treated in a dog. He informed me he knew nothing about corneas, "I am in retinas." I thought he was kidding and phoned the Yale department to find that all he does is detached retinas with a laser beam. Many years ago a group of veterinarians in Ohio worked together and created a central hospital system in which each vet. had an office and all major surgery and major workups and sophisticated treatments would be done at the central hospital. That hospital still thrives. Reading about that success a group of vets. in the New Haven area gathered to study the possibilities for us. It took two years of meetings to accomplish it but for those of us who utilize it it is nothing short of a bonanza. No longer do we have to get up in the middle of the night to treat emergencies unless we want to since there is a vet. and ancillary help on hand 24 hours. By group purchasing we have an advantage but the most important single feature is the convenience of discussing difficult cases among ourselves for the benefit of the patient. Of course we can afford one xray machine rather than each having one in a single practice and that goes for all kinds of sophisticated equipment and supplies. That hospital still thrives. Another approach to cooperative vet. service is the emergency hospital in which only emergencies are treated with expert service as far as they can be. In most heavily populated areas vet. specialists in surgery, orthopedics, ophthalmology, psychology and dental medicine most of whom are roving are now available by appointment. Much fanfare is devoted to the above whereas there are many more vets. who are single practice practitioners with farm animals included who treat a minimum of companion animals. These men and woman are more important to the health of our country than the city vets. Hats off to them.

Conn. Experiment Sttion Associates

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station is the oldest station of its kind in our Country and I have had an interest in it since I was about 8 years of age. My father took me along when he had questions the scientists at that station might answer. At one I was introduced to a Donald Jones who gave my father some corn to plant. This was the Jones who led the way for hybridizing plants resulting in important results such as growing twice the amount of corn per acre than with the usual seed available. He gave my father seeds that resulted in corn stalks the size of field corn and huge ears of sweet corn. In my practice of veterinary medicine I asked scientists for help in some difficult cases. For example with a case of sudden death in a coon hound I asked if they could test parts of the dead animal for poisoning. The results came back in a few hours, cadmium poison. The scientist at the station asked if the dog might have been fed out of a hub cap. I phoned the owner of the dog and asked him and got the reply, "I feed all my dogs our of hub caps." I had never heard of cadmium poisoning and did not know cadmium was found in them. That one case is a good example of the unsung hero's who work lives of quiet discovery with little recognition unless their field has a special effect on people such as ticks and Lyme Disease. Scientists are wrapped up in their work with no time to lecture to the public and if they did take the time the public would not be able to understand most of the research. They get their kicks out of publishing findings never reported before as published in scientific journals for other investigators to appreciate. The scientists at the station are asked to make a special effort to educate the public and do so effectively. I had been President in an outreach volunteer group for Yale's Peabody Museum. We supported many activities with food for special functions and with lectures for the public that were good for the Town and Gown effort of the University. Peabody Associates was so successful I wondered why the Ag Station did not have such a support group.The Director of the Ag Station at that time was Dr. John Anderson and one day I asked for an appointment with him and brought up that subject. He was enthusiastic and asked if I would put my thinking on paper and present it to the Board of Control, the director of the station. It was a simple job to copy the constitution and bylaws of Yale's Peabody Associates and present it as a plan. I made no secret where I found the plan. The Station's mailing list was contacted and by return mail we had over 200 members. So many people in Public Health and in agriculture had been helped in so many ways that I think they thought they owed the Station and so formed the nucleus of The Experiment Station Associates. I am prouder of that accomplishment than of any other in my life. I have a plaque stating that I am the Founder of that group. A few years passed and the financial situation of the state of Connecticut resulted in our Governor suggesting the Station no longer be funded. With the members of The Associates spread over the State to write letters to the media and legislators as well as the Governor, he had to back down. The Station thrives today.

A Feathered Thief

My reputation of robbing crows' nests and raising the young had spread enough for a counselor from a Summer Camp Hazen in Chester, Conn. to stop by to ask if I had an extra one that he could take to Camp for the Summer. Always ready to do a good dead I gave him one and wished him well. Little did I know I had given him a serious problem. I called the crow Snow Ball and he settled in well. The campers enjoyed taking food from meals and feeding him out of their hands. He would show up where there was activity such as a ball game where he might fly from base to base and have to be chased out of the danger of the heavy hitters. But although the camp offered so many activities that the campers reveled in a serious situation developed. There had to be a kleptomaniac among the campers or the counselors. Nothing like it had ever been a problem in the past. There were a couple of dozen units with 8 campers and a consular in each canvas sided tent. Tent after tent found things missing. Campers were suspect and grilled to no avail. Morning after morning someone would miss a watch or coins or rings and the frequency made it obvious that the culprit was active most nights. Night watches were established at which two counselors watched all night with no results for 10 nights in a row. Then one of the watch, preparing to sack out after his watch saw Snow Ball fly out of a tent with something shinny in his beak. What a glorious solution not to find a guilty camper. The next morning at daybreak several counselors were up and ready when again Snow Ball flew out with something in his beak. They followed and found the crow flew to a rain gutter of the mess hall. There was a treasure of objects campers had not missed along with many wrist watches. rings as well as bright pieces of broken glass. A bucket full of treasure. A great party was held for the bird and the solution of the mystery. Later in the camping season Snow Ball perched on the barn of a neighboring farmer's and the farmer shot and killed the poor bird. When told I wondered if I had any responsibility in that troublesome situation but my friend said the bird was the big event of the season and would never be forgotten. If I had taught Snow Ball to talk perhaps he would have told the campers what he was doing.

Alzheimer's first hand

From my first hand experience with what we hopped was a little senility to the years of sadness and helplessness in my mother was made even stranger in retrospect by the humor along the way. The stages of this problem result in a series of medical experiences with a nutritionist and that seemed to be helping but not enough so we tried a psychologist, a neurologist and with the insistence of well meaning friends a holistic MD as well as our general practitioner who was the quiet anchor with common seance. One of the expressions of perhaps all the well meaning professionals that became more and more outrageous from specialist after specialist was, "Mrs. Whitney, you have to remember you are not getting any younger." Such a profound statement from highly recommended specialists and I wondered how long a veterinarian would last with his clients with that destructive statement. I presume the idea was to soften the idea she was better aware of than anybody that she was getting older. The Holistic Physician was something else. There were a dozen names mentioned on a list of the best. I chose one 40 miles away who was second on the list. Here was a grossly over weight flush faced middle aged doctor who led us into his office and showed us chairs, sat down at his desk, pulled out a desk draw and brought forth a package of cigarettes and began lighting one as he said,"I presume you don't mind if I smoke," without waiting for a response. I thought how my mother would not allow anyone, even guests to smoke in her house. He began the examination with a discourse on diet and I knew most human physicians know they are taught virtually nothing about diets in any medical school in our country. However I was assured of his knowledge on the subject when he insisted mother eat only one brand of ice cream. I wish I had a tape recording of that dissertation on health and where all the secrets came from including special emphasis on oriental foods. Have you ever heard a person talk rapidly for a full 20 minutes with time out only to blow cigarette smoke in your face before dotting the end of the last sentence without saying a thing worthwhile? I did understand his last sentence, "That will be $50.00." Another well recommended physician who started out our relationship with, "Mrs. Whitney, we will address every problem you have and do everything we can to help." Never did the late Dr. Donald Dock even think of advising her the painful truth that she was not getting any younger. He did just as he stated and explained sometimes holding her hand what he thought was going on and was, along with Dr. Gordon, our long time family physician, the only really effective medical help we found. My sister from Florida dropped in about every six months and after a few hours of one visit confided in me that she had found mother's problem. "She is spoiled and we must work to unspoil her." I said, Julie, she is 90 years old and how can you talk about unspoiling her?" I knew mother enjoyed a nice restaurant and that usually meant one with cloth tablecloths. At one, siting across the table from me she reached for her coffee cup. The problem was her hand was under the table cloth. "Mother, your hand is under the table cloth!" Not only did the coffee cup and saucer turn over but the vase of flowers, too and that caused the amazed expression on the faces of every one around us. Another time we were comfortably seated and mother said,"Call the waitress." I asked, "What for? Can I do something for you?" "No, call the waitress!" I finally caught the eye of the waitress and she came to our table, "Can I help you?" Mother who in the past would never complain about anything shouted out, "Don't we rate? you are pouring coffee for everyone else,why not us?" The waitress had poured each of us our coffee as she seated us. From then on I sat next to her to prevent other spectacles . I took her to a day care center to see if she might enjoy company.She looked around and in a loud voice said, "Get me out of here. No one is smiling." My wife, Dorothy was a dedicated help for mother and she and I were the only people she remembered but she made a great impression on guests. Dorothy had discovered ways to overcome mother's disagreement of something. when asked if she were ready for her bath and Mother would answer no, Dorothy would ask if she wanted it hot or cold. she took a hot bath and when she put her leotards over her shoes and was asked why answered, "I always wear them that way." When I had to have a court order to take charge of her finances she greeted Judge Flynn with warmth and an offer of sharing her breakfast with him. She was so normal I was embarrassed until the judge asked her a bunch of questions such as her age, who the president was, our town's name all of which she would turn to me and say, "I forget. What is it, George? That was the ending of a great lady who, if she had had the opportunities my father had had would have risen to a position of importance and perhaps her years of Alzheimer's was kinder than other problems of old age. The pain was with her loved ones and our memories are those that preceded her problem. Wonderful memories.

Running bare footed

Strange things may happen around running tracks as when the female cheer leaders are sitting on all the lanes I want to run on and when 100 or so suited football players gather on the track for a yearbook picture. So I was not surprised to find a white van parked at the track with the wording painted on it in large letters,RUN TILLMAN RUN. There was a bearded young runner running at a slow pace with some sort of helper sitting while photographing the runner. My first thought was, RUN FOREST RUN. Tillman plans to run from New York City to Los Angelis starting in September to earn 2 million dollars for charity. As he was running bare footed before me I asked about that and was assured he would be ruining shoeless all the way. In this training session he planned 20 miles. So, it may be you have now heard it first right here from Brattleboro, Vermont and so have bragging rights. Of course, being a strange personage, I tried it for two laps and strangely it felt good. But it does have a down side as I am known by my different colored socks and so informed the cross country runner. He solved that problem. Dye your feet with a vegetable dye before every race. I have another idea. If after doing it for a while and want to try it in a race I will cut the soles off of an old pair of running shoes and bottoms off my multicolored socks and run bare soles without the raising of the eyebrows that all bare footed running might cause. Another downside is that in some races when runners spit during a race, without shoes would make me have to watch my step or slip on the stuff and I have a problem enough telling my 90 year old frame what to do without one more obstacle. Any suggestions?