# Ferals Rule



## bigbird (Aug 19, 2000)

Welcome to the "new" Feral Forum.
It is time that these lovely birds had their own talking space.
Regards,
Carl


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## Whitefeather (Sep 2, 2002)

*Thanks Carl*

*Welcome to the "new" Feral Forum.
It is time that these lovely birds had their own talking space.*
Couldn't agree with you more.  
I'm sure many will have lots to tell us.  

Cindy


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

This is great.
Ferals certainly deserve to have their own talk-forum.

Reti


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## Poulette (Feb 5, 2002)

What a good idea! I have a feral rescued who refused to go away last week. I let the pigeon the choice to fly with the pigeons in the backyard or to come back in the house. I guess he still wants the 5 stars hotel accomodation for a while  
Suz.


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Smart guy, Poulette  

Reti


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

That's great, Suz 

Pigeons are hardy, and live with whatever the elements throw at them. But, I'm sure that pigeons also like comfort and hospitality. 

Just wish we could build huge warehouses, that all the town pigeons could come to for shelter and some warmth!

John


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## bigbird (Aug 19, 2000)

Yes John, I have thought the same thing.
Like a park, with easy to clean lofts, food and water daily, a sanctuary for wild ferals. How wonderful that would be.
Carl


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Yes Carl and John,

I have thought exactly the same thing. There are many ferals in my town. My flock is at least 90 birds. My town is an odd mix of residential and industrial. I believe there are others like me who try to feed the ferals (without getting caught and fined) on their property during the day, but at night, thanks to the many parking garages that accomodate our malls and such, there are night roosts for our feathered friends.Something that stands out in my mind: last june I went to a movie and dinner with my college classmates at an outdoor mall in my town. I am the only smoker in the group (yea yea yea, I know I should quit, it is killing me, etc) and went out to have a cigarette around 9:00 pm, it was full dark) and what did I see, but pigeons foraging for scraps outside the restaurants at that hour of night. My heart was broken. I knew from this site, that they had no business foraging at that hour unless they were desperately hungry. You gotta know that ~all~ my french friies from dinner were scattered for them. Do my friends think I am nuts? Yes! Is that okay? Yes. My heart breaks everytime I go foodshopping, and there are countless pigeons and gulls hanging around the parking lot, picking at paper and plastic scraps in hopes of finding something to eat. Many times I will pick up seed or a loaf of bread just to give them on my way out. Can I save them all? No. Can I help fill their bellies and help them get through another tough day? Yes. So I do.
They are so beautiful, so brave, so resourceful, so pitiful sometimes...how can some people have such bad opinions toward them?
That flying rat comment is getting old....and made famous by a middle aged, perverted, heavily mid life crisising, funny looking movie director who married his own stepdaughter. I may be wrong, but I think this idiot is his own grandpa! And thanks to his "eloquence", our beloved birds are known as "flying rats!'
Sheesh! Forgive me for venting!
Linda


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

*Sweetie and I are here as well*

Hi,

This is new. I like it, of course Sweetie isn't at the library with me now, but I think she would like it too. She is a lovely Feral Pigeon. She has some deep irredecent purple colors with some deep green Irredecent colors in her crop area. They are not as Brilliant as they are in a males Irredecent colors. 

I am going to try to retape her legs together with a space of 1 inch a part so that she can at least walk. Then that way she will be able to grow in her new flight feathers and be able to fly like she wants to. She just turned 5 months old around Christmas day. She is quite a pigeon. I must admit I really did spoil her. No she is not releasable. She is too trusting now. She allows me to pet her back with no problem at all. She loves it. So she is a very lovable pet now.

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

*Hi,*

I realized that I posted and didn't join and forums. I am joining now. Now this is not only a post but am joining. Have a Happy New Year!  

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie


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## Victor (Dec 18, 2004)

I really enjoyed your "venting" moments and thank you for sharing.Now...about your smoking...you really do need to stop.The pigeons and us need you around for a long time!God bless you.~Victor in Omaha


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

vdog505 said:


> I really enjoyed your "venting" moments and thank you for sharing.Now...about your smoking...you really do need to stop.The pigeons and us need you around for a long time!God bless you.~Victor in Omaha


Thanks Victor.....I am usually cooler and calmer than I appeared at the end of that posting...I don't often go off on a rant, but I guess I was "in a mood."  
Thank you for your concern and kind comments....(I know the smoking is bad...it is a terrible habit to break, but others have succeeded and I am sure I will be able to also, eventually. It near top of the list of New Year's resolutions on self improvement.)
Thank you again, and I have been enjoying your postings on the forum.
Best wishes to you and your family for a happy, healthy New Year.
Linda


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

My husband made a fuss. I am trying to get my husband to let me try to tape her legs. But he wants me to wait till Tomorrow, Monday when he calls the vet. I have been trying to get Sweetie use to having her leg up next to her. When I do this, Sweetie seems to be more relaxed about it. I am going to try to place the tape on it tomarrow for sure. I am afraid of what both Avian Vets are going to say to Victor, my husband. He loves Sweetie very much too. I told him right off that these vets might not be much help. I guess He has to learn for himself. I have to pick up all the
pieces as usual. But the good news is that Sweetie just looks at me when I bring her leg up as close as I can and she is letting me
hold it there for five minutes or more. When I slowly let go though there is a kind of pop that I hear. It doesn't seem to hurt her. The thing is that each time I do this the leg will get closer to where it is suppose to be. She still lets me pet her leg. I am going to make an attempt tomorrow. When a splay leg happens is it a dislocated thigh? Then what I would be trying to do is maybe keeping
the leg in place till the muscles grow stronger around it to keep the leg from becoming dislocated again. Is that why her leg pops at times in she moves it? It is like she knows that I am trying to help her. The cloth tape that looks like an ace bandage, but white, is an inch wide. Should I cut this tape in half? I have to know. The tape that you use for your babies, looks like it is half and inch in width. 

Thank you, 

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

*I am also having trouble with the pastor now.*

Arty:

I am willing to go through anything for Sweetie. I have been kicked out of a library, banned from a strip-mall. Now, the pastor is telling me that Sweetie can't stay inside the church anymore because someone found out about Sweetie and called the Department of Natural Resources and said I had a wild bird. The pastor told me it was against the law to keep a wild bird of any kind in the state of Michigan unless you are a licensed Rehabber. That I could keep her and the box behind the bushes and take care of it there. But because the church doesn't want to break any laws that I couldn't bring Sweetie back inside the church anymore. 

Now, this is the funny thing. I searched and searched on the website on michigan.gov under Department of Natural Resources. I couldn't find anything that clasified a Rock Dove or a Feral Pigeon as being listed as a wildlife bird. Plus I couldn't find out where it said that I was breaking the law.

Can you help me? Here is the website on Wildlife Species Birds: http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-1053-10370_1214512202---,00.html

Please help me sort this out. Help me find what I am looking for. Everyone around here is afraid of the West Nile
Disease being spread by pigeons and doves. But I have a report that has been proven that in Michigan they tested commercially a total of 12 Rock Doves (Feral Pigeons) and the result was that none have spread this disease to any humans at all. It was the Crows that mainely spread it to humans, and after the crows, the sparrows got it but they didn't spread it to humans as fast as the crows did. 

No, the Feral Pigeon did not spread this disease to humans when the experimented on them. So some died herorically for the cause of the West Nile Disease. Some people are just so ignorant about things. If the pastor ever told me to
get rid of Sweetie or go outside and stay. I will go outside and stay with Sweetie. My husband probably will be very angry and say a few things to the pastor and stay outside with me. 

I will hear from you soon,

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

*The link didn't work!*

Arty,

I am sorry the link I gave you isn't working. What I did a Search, I searched Department of Natural Resources, Michigan. and it was to the Department of Nature Resourced on the michigan.gov site. So please, maybe if you checked you can find out some information for me that I couldn't find.


Thank you, 

Happy New Year!  

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Victoria,
I m so sorry for what you are going through.
I hope you can make the pastor undestand that Sweety is not releasable in her condition (with the leg), beside she is too tame to be ever released.
If you could take her to the vet and have a health ckeck and have her vaccinated, maybe he would change his mind.

I don't know the law in Michigan, hope somebody on this forum does.
Anyway, I will try to do a check.

We all go through rough times because of our pigeons, because many people are just so ignorant.

Reti


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

Dear Reti and Arty:

As I came across a document that is called "Experimental Infection of North American Birds with the New Youk 1999 Strain of West Nile Virus. All of the birds that had perished
during this time they are the heroes and heroines of our time because of all the cruelty that they had to go through and had been even the surviving birds were euthanized. Now let me tell you what I learned. The Mourning Doves were found in the wild, but the Rock Doves (Feral Pigeons) were found commercially. 

Now let me write what is says toward the end of the document. 

Development of Neutralizing Antibodies

We expected all infected birds to generate a humoral immune response to WNV, with development of virus-neutralizing antibodies. Thus, the two Budgerigars that did not produce detectable antibodies (assayed at 14 dpi) were thought to have avoided infectoin. However, one of these parakeets hobored a persistent infection in heart tissue, indicating that infection died occur. This same bird had detectable viremia only at 1 dpi. Whith one species, Rock Doves, we followed the immune response through 9 weeks postinfection. All six Rock Doves generated a neutralizing immune response that persisted throughout the monitoring period. An early rise-fall-rise pattern in the neutralizing antibody response (Figure 3) is probably explained by the early, ephemeral contribution of immunoglobulin (Ig) M to virus neutralization, followed by a rise in neutralizing IgY. The Rock Dove (or domestic pigeon) is considered a candidate sentinel for monitoring WNV transmission in the United States (29). Our results indicate that Rock Doves have a strong immune response after a brief, low-level (noninfectious) viremia, both important criteria for candidate sentinels.

These poor birds! The pigeons especially, people are ignorrant. But one of these days, they may be lying in a hospital bed close to death and and a pigeon will lose its life because they may use the antibodies of that pigeon to make serum to combat the virus that they have to help them survive. They better wake up and appreciate these birds more. Because one day their own lives will be saved by a pigeon, the bird that is a symbol of Love and Peace.

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie.


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