Arson Attacks - Sympathetic Press

March 9, 2006

Gordon Chalmers sent this email doing the rounds, on Guardian newspaper report 8th March; Thought it was a very sympathetic airing of our side of things.

Sitting doves

A spate of deliberate blazes at pigeon lofts around the country have left distressed fanciers confused as to why they have been targeted

Paul Lewis

Wednesday March 8, 2006

Guardian

Until recently, Gordon Lord was a proud pigeon racer. The 67-year-old retired shop-fitter from Littleborough, near Rochdale, was president of Littleborough and District Flying Club, a national race winner, and the owner of a rare breed of Dordin pigeons - a lively, blue-plumed bird descended from France's supreme pigeon racer, Pierre Dordin.

But early this year Lord's pigeon loft, along with 100 racing and breeding birds cooped inside, was burned to the ground in an arson attack. Buried on a hillside in the Pennines, beneath a carpet of charred rubble and singed feathers, lie the remains of birds he had bred since 1973.

"There must be 80-odd pigeons left under there, burnt like roast chickens," he says, drawing his eyes away from the sight. "But I haven't got the heart to clear them out; I couldn't bear seeing them."

Sentimental value

He estimates his flock would have sold for £50,000, but their real value, he says, was sentimental. Blindfolded, he could identify each individual bird simply by cupping it in his hand. Keeping to a 40-year routine, he still visits the burned shell of his old loft three times a day.

Lord has been the victim of five apparently deliberate attempts to kill his birds since 2000. Previous blazes have killed 96 pigeons, although, until this latest attack, his breeding stock always survived. "I'm finished for racing, I can never get those birds back," he says.

Greater Manchester police has appealed for information, and inquiries are ongoing. It confirms that the attack was suspicious, but Lord believes officers have been slow to mount a thorough investigation.

Lord's tale is part of a growing trend. The attack on his flock is just one of a string of pigeon loft torchings throughout the country, and few are prosecuted. The problem is causing real concern in the pigeon racing fraternity. Bewildered fanciers (as racers are known) are wondering why they're the targets.

Stephen Richards, editor of British Homing World magazine, estimates that there have been more than 12 arson attacks on pigeon lofts in the last 10 months. He believes groups of young people are largely responsible for the spate of torchings. "It's kids," he says. "They don't realise the harm they're doing, the heartbreak they're causing."

"We used to get one or two cases a year, but suddenly we've had a flurry in a very short space of time," says Peter Bryant, general manager of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, an organisation with more than 39,000 members. "There's no doubt that this is a national problem."

Although rival fanciers have in the past been responsible for sabotage attacks on their competitor's stock, such events are rare. Rather, the sport is renowned for its camaraderie. The fourth time his loft was set on fire, in 2003, Lord's colleagues auctioned their own birds to raise enough money to get him racing again. Even the Queen, who runs a pigeon loft at her Sandringham estate, donated a bird for auction. Trevor Mallison, also a fancier, spent weeks helping Lord rebuild his loft from scratch before the most recent fire.

"Inter-rival attacks hardly ever happen among our members," insists Bryant. "Fanciers tend to look after each other. I think we are looking at arson committed by groups of youths at the weekend." Helen Briggs, spokesperson for the RSPCA, agrees that most fires are probably being ignited by children. "We've noticed that deliberate attacks on birds increase during the school holidays," she says.

A major problem, fanciers say, is that their lofts are usually easily accessible -they are often built on difficult-to-guard allotments or scrubland. And with general arson attacks a serious problem - there were 2,499 in Greater Manchester in the six months preceding the blaze at Lord's loft - fanciers feel they are easy targets.

A week before Lord's commitment to pigeon racing was turned to ashes, a similar fate befell Lawrence Dunnet. A fire killed 74 of his birds - just two survived. Like Lord, Dunnet blames local people, probably teenagers. "There's lots of names floating around, but no one can be sure who did it," he says.

Like so many others, the perpetrators of the fires at Lord's and Dunnet's lofts have not been brought to justice. "The police haven't been around since that night," says Dunnet.

However, Dennis Sergeant, from Phillipstown, south Wales, has succeeded in seeing an arsonist brought to justice. Last year, the 59-year-old ex-miner, known as Sparky, lost 39 birds in a blaze. "We put a £500 reward out for information, and a couple of witnesses came forward but they wouldn't sign the statements," he says. Eventually, though, a 19-year-old man was convicted for the arson attack, and received a community order.

Dismembered bodies

But Sparky tends to be the exception. His friend, Wayne Evans, knows what it is like to have his pigeons killed by an unknown villain. Two years ago, someone broke into his loft, removed the heads of 15 pigeons and stuffed them into their nests. He found the dismembered bodies in a bucket the next day.

RSPCA inspector Rob Crutchley, who has himself kept pigeons, says it is a mystery why birds are being so horribly attacked. "Pigeon lofts may be attacked by vandals for many different reasons: bored children, or neighbours who don't like pigeons being kept nearby," he says. "In northern England, pigeon lofts are often kept on allotments, which can be in isolated areas. With fewer potential witnesses around, it can make incidents more difficult to investigate."

Out of the blue, Lord finds some consolation: two of his breeding pigeons return. One is his best-performing male; the second, a hen, the daughter of the winner of the Welsh National. "They must have escaped," says Lord. "I'm so glad they're back. Whoever did this, we're not going to let them beat us."

March 10, 2006

The point above stating that the lad got community service, says it all. What sort of punishment is that for killing someones birds, if they were to kill someones prize greyhound or prize horse Im sure they would have dont time for it.

rlez · March 10, 2006

whats the sport comming to,it would be nice if we used some of the vast amount of money in the RPRA account to use as some sort of reward to catch these Basssssssssssstds money talks

les

March 11, 2006

whats the sport comming to,it would be nice if we used some of the vast amount of money in the RPRA account to use as some sort of reward to catch these Basssssssssssstds money talks
les

Good point. £50 is a fortune to these people so offer a couple of hundred quid reward and they'll turn in their granny... money well spent too.