Last year, I took some photos of a fellow standing on a platform on top of a small apartment building. He was waving a pole with a streamer attached, while his flock of pigeons were busy flying in loops and figure eights.
Little did I know that gambling on pigeon racing is a big business in Taiwan. One owner estimated that for a single, 5-race meet, six million U.S. dollars were wagered. Competition is tough, though:
"Three thousand birds started our recent fall meet," (Yeh Cheng-shen, the chairman of the Taipei County Pigeon Racing Associations) says. "Only 20 or 30 returned at the end of the event."
Yeh says most of the dropouts lose their way along the route, but some are trapped by criminals eager to exact ransoms.
"Gangsters erect these huge nets in valleys and other places the birds have to cross. Then they call the owner and offer to return the bird for what seems like a pretty reasonable price — about NT$3000 ($90 U.S. dollars)," he says.
Bet Vito Corleone never thought of that one. But what happens if a bird gets hurt?
It has become such a big business that there are now pigeon hospitals catering to injured competitors with state-of-the-art techniques.
Who knew?
You wrote: “Last year, I took some photos of a fellow standing on a platform on top of a small apartment building. He was waving a pole with a streamer attached, while his flock of pigeons were busy flying in loops and figure eights.”
Where was this? I remember when I used to work in Banqiao I would often see a man doing this. It was in Zhongshan Road near the railway station.
btw, there is a show about pigeon racing in Taiwan on the National Geographic Channel tonight.
It was someplace near Taipei, though I couldn’t say exactly where. It was an area that I’m not really familiar with.
First saw your comment this morning, so it looks like I missed that Nat’l Geographic program. Too bad.
How do I track down a birds owner in Taiwan?
The tag only has a number on it, and the year. Nothing else.
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Peter,
I’ll send out a holler & see what I can do.
Peter,
The best course I can think of would be to take it to the nearest police station. I’d bring a note written in Chinese saying that you found this bird, and that you know it might be very valuable.
I’ll let you know if somebody has any better idea.