Ritting pigeons: A cultural heritage in the area of ​​tension between sports and animal welfare!

Ritting pigeons: A cultural heritage in the area of ​​tension between sports and animal welfare!

On April 12 and 13, 2025, RV Gummersbach opened its doors as part of the “Torting Peasant Days” in order to provide insights into the fascinating sport of racing pigeon breeding. The aim of this event was to present the racing pigeon sport to a general public and to promote interest in this traditional hobby. Breeder Wolfgang Blumberg from Lindlar invited numerous interested parties to visit his pigeon strokes and learn more about the background of sport. According to Oberberg-aktuell.de , the discussions and the exchange of information about the racing pigeons were an integral part of the event.

children had the opportunity to carefully stroke the pigeons, which was a big highlight. Another highlight of the day of the carrier pigeon was a raffle that is carried out over the entire young pigeon season. The visitors had the chance to win a pigeon that will take part in competitions. It is particularly gratifying that pigeons win prizes with the best placements in the season. This raffle is intended to promote the audience participation on the competition days that take place regularly every Sunday.

Promotion of the audience participation

In order to increase the interest in competitions, the racing pigeon association provided advertising materials that were distributed during the event. RV Gummersbach rated the days of the carrier pigeon as a consistently positive event. But racing pigeons face challenges, especially in connection with the Covid 19 pandemic. The association page provides information about the effects of the pandemic and the measures that have been taken to enable sport again, as in regV651.com

During the pandemic, for example, group flights were prohibited until May 3, 2020, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Presidium of the Association has contacted state governments in order to create safe conditions for racing pigeons. Individual training flights are allowed under certain conditions, but without joint training. In addition, information about current developments always finds its way to the website of the associations.

The saying of the loss

A critical aspect of racing pigeon is the high loss rates for rioting. On average, the loss rate is 53 percent, which means that many pigeons no longer find home. An example of this is a race in 2022, in which only about 6,000 achieved their destination of 26,000 racing pigeons, which were abandoned in Narbonne, southern France. Animal rights activists demand more responsibility in dealing with these animals, which often end up in the wilderness or at animal welfare associations, exhausted or injured.

The topic is reinforced by the fact that many racing pigeons do not have names, but only numbers on their rings. The animal welfare organization Stadttauben Buchholz e.V. recorded an increase in emergency calls between 2023 and 2024. These often come from all over Germany and from neighboring countries such as Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Unfortunately, many breeders reject the withdrawal of missing pigeons, which leads to a persistent problem for animal welfare. The dialogue between breeders and animal welfare associations is therefore considered essential to promote a more responsible attitude towards the animals, regardless of the sporting successes.