Wild Pigeon - flight + me = Help?

Track Nine

Okay, so last night I heard my dog barking like mad out in the darkness of my back garden, and, after going out to investigate, I find her chasing a pigeon around the garden. Now, what a pegeon is doing walking around my garden in the black of night, I don't know, but it quickly became clear it couldn't fly.

So, not wanting it to get torn apart by a local cat, I caught the pigeon, put it in a box and left it overnight. Now, this morning I find it awake and alert, but upon trying to let it out, find it still can't fly very well and only made it a few feet high before crashing into my garden fence.

So, the bird is back in the box with some water and food, but I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. It's not a wood pigeon or dove like we usually get in our garden, it's actually more the run of the mill city pigeon type, so I've no idea what it's doing here. It has no ring, looks very scruffy and is missing a few tail feathers.

Anyone have any ideas where I should go from here? there are no animal welfare groups that will help and the local pigeon owners would just snap his common-bird neck. He eats, drinks and shits like a champ, but I've only tried letting him fly in my garden (not exactly huge) and for all he flew a little - it wasn't a confidence inspiring effort.

And, yes, I know they're considered pests by many, but damn it, I'm not one for leaving an animal to a derranged cat sponsored slaughter.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Crashtard

I live out in the country. We'd just put it down

Erandus

Personally, I'd get rid of it. There's something in the neighborhood of 50 illnesses that can be contracted from pigeon shit that are fatal to humans.

http://www.azwns.com/Healthrisk.htm

As bird feces and/or the contaminated soil it rests on, dries or is disturbed, microscopic pieces break off and become airborne. These airborne particles can contain dormant fungi and/or bacteria. When breathed into the lungs, the warm, moist environment of the lung lining provides a breeding ground for the infectious agents. Common symptoms of this type of infection are flu like in nature: coughing, elevated temperature, restricted breathing and general body fatigue, and last roughly two to four days. The vast majority of the time, the bodies defenses will contain the invaders even before minor symptoms appear but in a small percentage of cases, major infection causing long term disability and even death occurs. It is worth noting that there is no known medical cure for internal fungal infections.

Even if it looks totally healthy, this isn't stuff you really want to take a chance at exposing yourself to.

BlochWave

Yah this is like a slight step above saving a rat from your cat and wanting to nurse it back to health

Plus wringing a bird's neck builds character!

PirateJon

long shot - contacts local vets and ask if they have inforamtion about no-kill resources in your area.

google... who knew?

http://www.pigeonrescue.com/

Thanatos

Yeah, one of the reasons they're called "rats with wings" is because they're huge disease vectors.

AtomBomb

That pigeon rescue site seems pretty useful. I would probably try to nurse it back to health, but then I'm a sissy vegan (unless it appears to be in pain, in which case you should kill it). One of my dogs was fond of killing birds for awhile, but I never got stuck with you dillema because she was really good at it.

Good luck!

Track Nine

Okay, so lots of votes for the kill the vermin argument.

Yes, I know that they are big disease carriers, but I'm keeping things pretty sterile and have been using those disposable rubber gloves to handle the bird or touch it's temporary accomodation. Thanks for the added disease detail though, and the niggling hypochodria it brings.. *struggles with rising paranoia of possible symptoms*

I've decided to give the bird another night's care and them tomorrow I'm going to take it to an area of fields and woodland and give it a shot at freedom. If it makes a good enough go of fleeing it's evil captor, then I'll leave it to it's own devices and trust in it's ability to avoid becoming easy fox/Kestrel bait. If it flounders or looks in too bad a state to avoid a miserable demise, then I'll probably grab it and take it back in.

What can I say? flying biohazard or not, I can't help but want to at least try and offer it a fair shot.

Erandus

There's nothing wrong with letting it loose in the wild to fend for itself in any state, either. Foxes gotta eat too..

Rubber gloves are a good start, I'd look at a little surgeon's mask kinda thing to handle it with too. Most of the nastyness you can catch from the droppings are airborne.

Calling a vet for advice would probably be a good move too.

Track Nine

Update for the kind folks who offered advice.

Fed the Pigeon up for a couple of nights and this morning took him to a secluded field/woodland area to give it a shot at independance.

Looks like a few nights of R&R did the trick - the little biohazard actually managed to take off and fly into some trees about 150 meters from where I let it loose. Don't get me wrong, wringing it's neck was on the cards if it had taken a turn for the worse, but I must admit, vermin or not, it felt pretty good to give him a chance.

Cheers, guys.

The Black Hunter

If you come across this again, a good way to put a small animal down is by putting a tube into it's box from your car exhaust.

It's about as humane as you can get, and only takes a minute.

AtomBomb

I'm glad the little guy made it. Nice work