Guest Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 As worrying as it is about this outbreak, (will we wont we be able to race) i have sat and thought about it and maybe its not as bad as we may think (dont all start slating me yet) because was it not better that this happened before the racing season (just think what this could have meant for the future of the sport had this happened just after the start of racing season or even just after channel racing had started) i think that would of been the end of this great sport & i as still a novice would not have even been able to enjoy the thrill that a lot of you guys have had of getting a bird from 500/600 miles let alone maybe winning my first race.Think about it the goverment will want to get everything back to normal as soon as poss to eleviate public fears and to get the industry back to normal as soon as poss for the farmers/economic sake so hopefully this will include lifting the restrictions on racing so as to promote confidence.it is 21 days to wait to make sure that there are no more outbreaks in the area so we could have the all clear by the start of the racing season. this post is not meant to offend or upset anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WINGS 04 Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 IT IS A GOOD POST I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT AND A WELL THOUGHT OUT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeonpete Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Good thinking mate, fingers crossed hey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny11 Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 You are absolutly right this is the best time for it to emerge. it was about the same time last year that the outbreak in Scotland was confirmed and we got a programme plus some Channel. watching the news this morning they are stating that prevention is impossible due to it being carried on wild birds. maybe Pete Bryant can use this to our advantage by claiming that stopping pigeon racing will not stop the outbreak from happening again. I remain fairly optimistic for this year, as this flu is here to stay so we have to carry on regardless. I do think we should be seen to be doing as much as possible to help the poultry industry as for us lads and lasses it is a hobby to these people it is their livlihood, most of us dont depend on our birds to put food in the mouths of our children the personnel involved in the poultry industry do. I feel sorry for these guys, we only have to suffer no racing they lose their jobs. looking at the other side some fanciers have called for a season with no racing to help control the peregrine population.... Would it be a solution? John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 While I agree with these posts, I think it is a bit of a two-edged sword. Placing restrictions on 'pigeons' (not just racing pigeons and pigeon racing ... it covers anyone who keeps any kind of bird: a canary, a parrot or even a couple of pet fantails) immediately places a link between pigeons and the spread of bird flu both in the media mind and the public mind. You've seen several references by the media blaming 'pigeons' for the current outbreak. Any such link, fanciful or not, damages us and the sport. The sooner the truth of the matter is made widely known and accepted by all, and that 'link' broken, the better. Because the fact of the matter is that H5N1 is a disease of poultry: enter low pathogenic AI into one end of poultry, especially chickens & ducks, and the most likely result is exit high pathogenic H5N1 at the other. H5N1 has spilled over from poultry into the wild bird population, and not the other way round. Proof of that? It kills wild birds by the handful and poultry by the millions. Poultry is big business and that industry must be protected by governments at all costs, even if that means damaging our own reputation with and concealing the truth from the public, for as long as possible. For me, until that pigeon-AI 'link' is broken and our case is won, racing, channel racing, and racing pigeons are only side-issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henrik Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Just watching BBC News and it shows chickens outside in a field within the 3km protection zone also dumped birds on a rounabout and then theres the film of a farmyard in the 3km zone with chickens pecking about and whots the first thing thats shown FERAL pigeons on the barn roof. Bout time Peter Bryant got on to them and told them that pigeons dont race just now and also that the ones shown are FERAL and not associated with racing pigeons in any way aklso time we were E-Mailing DEFRA to get them to enforce their £km zone cos if it was my birds that were out they would be round at my door PDQ to cull my birds. All this talk of protecting the poultry industry and they wont comply and help themselves. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbrown Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Nice to see someone looking at things positively, good post lplates. Heres hoping :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hjaltland Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Did you see the aerial footage of those turkey sheds on SKY news... There were literally hundreds of seagulls siiting around on the shed roofs, it doesnt take much of a stretch of imagination to figure out where the infection might have come from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbrown Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Yeah, i spotted the same lastnight.. But it will probably take the "experts" weeks and thousands ££££££ to come up with this answer....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ticeye Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 did you also see on sky news from the helicopter film at the plant for burning the carcases that a trailer full of dead birds had been left with its cover off and unattended any wild birds like starlings, magpies ect had an open invitation to pick at these birds so much for trying to curtail the spread of the decease Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond dave Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Invincible, Lets wait and see what the Defra explanation is. It does make you wonder, however, if these sheds are self contained, where the disease does come from. Could it have been caused through stress as invicible suggests or something else to do with keeping large numbers of birds together. After all we know first hand what this can do to the health of pigeons. If it does come in on the feed, I bet Defra will still blame the humble seagulls on the shed roofs because it would highlight a flaw in their preparations. D.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pompey Mick Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Sometimes the threat is much worse than reality, if we can get by this outbreak without any further problems ,then the Public fear of Avian Flu will be much reduced and hopefully DEFRA will react accordingly. At least it has happened when there is no pigeon racing on the go, so we can't get the blame for this outbreak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Yes, pigeon racing is banned but as WE know there is no pigeon racing at this time of year and hasn't been since September 2006. But not one of the 'pundits' has mentioned this on TV ... and this is where everyone is expected to get the information and the facts from according to government ministers interviewed on news programs ... so it would make a very interesting question to have asked on air by these pundits 'what possible effect on the spread of bird flu, can a ban have on an activity that has not taken place since September 2006? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Lads, keep our heads down, carry out any directives and let Peter Bryant and our reps take this on. Peter will have learnt a huge amount from his dealings with DEFRA last year, as I posted a day or two back,the scientific arguement is secondary, it is a political/ PR one that is crucial for us now. And we are in the lap of the gods. If we have any outbreaks at anytime this year we will be stopped dead. Let's hope that this is a 'rogue' outbreak. People are looking for reasons why this happened, don't forget this is a virus it is not bacterial. Virus can travel on the wind! I suspect they will never find out but lets not bring attention on ourselves so that we can be blamed. I work in a Social Work Office and I would generalise that they are a very liberal bunch..but everyone this morning wanted to check that I was keeping my birds in, and several wanted to know if I was worried!! The glass is half full not half empty, let's stick together and support Peter Bryant in this difficult scenario and let's hope there is no Pandemic because that would be far worse than losing a season's racing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Lads, keep our heads down, carry out any directives and let Peter Bryant and our reps take this on. Peter will have learnt a huge amount from his dealings with DEFRA last year, as I posted a day or two back,the scientific arguement is secondary, it is a political/ PR one that is crucial for us now. And we are in the lap of the gods. If we have any outbreaks at anytime this year we will be stopped dead. Let's hope that this is a 'rogue' outbreak. People are looking for reasons why this happened, don't forget this is a virus it is not bacterial. Virus can travel on the wind! I suspect they will never find out but lets not bring attention on ourselves so that we can be blamed. I work in a Social Work Office and I would generalise that they are a very liberal bunch..but everyone this morning wanted to check that I was keeping my birds in, and several wanted to know if I was worried!! The glass is half full not half empty, let's stick together and support Peter Bryant in this difficult scenario and let's hope there is no Pandemic because that would be far worse than losing a season's racing. One of the most condescending posts from you yet. Suggest you do a little more research into the scientific argument, specifically about the avian flu virus's inability to travel on the wind, because of the drying out affects, together with the effect of UV light. And no, my talking about AI didn't make it go and infect that shed, nor were my birds anywhere near it ... the virus ... or the shed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vic Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Seconds Out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Bruno, thanks for the compliment but barking up the wrong tree, don't solve owt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Bruno, thanks for the compliment but barking up the wrong tree, don't solve owt! Apology offered. You are quite correct. Solves nothing. But keeping quiet solves nothing for us. Thankfully, today, H5N1 is old news to BBC at least as its way down the pecking order 'from the top story on the programme'. If you've followed the News, we've had blurb from 'correspondants', people living locally, the various central and local government agencies, AI, food, and microbiology experts, NFU (wasn't our fault, support us) RSPB (wasn't brought in by wild birds, support us) etc. We've heard from every quarter except our own. Our Mr Bryant nor any other member of our negotiating group has had one sound-bite on any 'piece' that I've viewed since Friday last week. A little soundbite like: "yes, pigeon racing has been banned, but of course there hasn't been any racing since September last year, and therefore racing pigeons had obviously no part to play in the current outbreak nor for that matter any other outbreak" would have been more than helpful. In the public mind Silence is in itself incriminating. And lack of general knowledge out there on pigeons and AI, and the the current restrictions, even amongst your own office colleagues who are charged 'with knowing all the issues in the case', in my opinion, also solves nothing. Silence (do nothing) is not an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Well i posted this thread hoping to make things seem a little brighter but seems to have gone off track however a very interesting debate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Bruno, thank you and for my part please accept mine if I offended. I'm not trying to put a lid on the debate but at the moment I genuinly think we have to lay low and follow the regs. Good to see Peter Bryant is being positive, it doesn't guarantee anything but he obviously has a good relationship with DEFRA which can only be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 we will all just have to see how it all pans out in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pompey Mick Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 I don't know what other members think , but I feel the press coverage on the Avian Flu outbreak has been quite reserved. Had this happened a year ago we would have had 'Death from the Skies' emblazoned across every front page. The Public reaction has been very muted. no real scare stories and the whole saga will be completely 'yesterdays news' by tomorrow. If this is an unexplained one-off we should be able to resume a dialogue with DEFRA to reinstate racing as soon as the restrictions are lifted. The biggest downside is the fact that DEFRA chose to remove the licence and ban gatherings immediately as well as imposing the local restrictions. It was hoped that this would not be the case and only the restricted area would be under DEFRA restrictions not all of the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 Might not be out of the woods 'newsworthy-wise' with this story: only barest of details, one of the vets involved in the turkey cull has been admitted to hospital with 'respiratory problems.' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6336823.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Might not be out of the woods 'newsworthy-wise' with this story: only barest of details, one of the vets involved in the turkey cull has been admitted to hospital with 'respiratory problems.' This one's not going away. Happily, the vet was released from hospital today, don't know what illness was, but 'negative for bird flu'. Not the end of it tho: BBC News24 breaking news, a second worker has been admitted to hospital, being 'tested for bird flu'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Come on brono i can name 6 people that came back from Blackpool loaded with the flu myself included its that time of year thease guys are no different to us they get winter flu as well let the sh-- stirrers in the news/papers do what the are good at but we dont need to help them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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