Thousands of Pigeons from France Go Missing After being Released into a Stormy Weather

Racing pigeons from Belgium went missing after the birds were released into stormy weather in Narbonne, France.

The birds were racing back to their lofts in northern Europe when they hit a summer storm, during which thousands of them went missing, The Guardian reported. Belgian pigeon fanciers and federation described the event as a 'catastrophe' and blamed the organizers.

"It's an emotional drama, a financial drama - it's quite simply very sad," said Pascal Bodengien, the president of the federation, adding that some may have flown to Germany by accident.

"Some of them will come back in the next few days but the majority are definitively lost."

A Competition Gone Wrong

Pigeon racing is a sport developed in Belgium during the mid-19th century, based on history when the birds were used to send messages, according to Topend Sports. Equipped with tracking devices, the goal is for each pigeon to return back to its home as fast as possible, and determine which was the fastest bird.

It was believed that pigeons have the ability to navigate using the Earth's magnetic field lines and sense of smell. However, it seems like this 'finely tuned' sense of navigation was thrown into confusion last Friday when, 18 miles (30km) from the start of the race, a storm left them disoriented and tired.

It had been widely reported that 20,000 birds have gone missing, but the federation spokesperson Didier Tison said this was "completely false", as there were only around 3,000 to 4,000 lost birds from Belgium.

Although the figure is still an "exceptional" number, he was not able to confirm the tally for other countries.

Loss for Pigeon Fancier

Raising a bird and spending thousands of euros on sought-after breeders that will provide the "next generation of champions" takes two to three years for amateur, dedicated pigeon fanciers. Which is why last Friday's event left them a certain kind of loss and pain.

Luc Henry, a pigeon fancier from Paifve in eastern Belgium, had entered 87 birds into the competition, but only 36 had returned, according to an interview broadcast on Tuesday. He said the "pigeons didn't have a chance" in a race that was "completely distorted".

Meanwhile, Ulrich Lemmens, from Balen in Flanders had only 15 of the 57 pigeons he entered and described his losses "truly painful".

"In my 13 years as a pigeon fancier, this is the first time this has happened. Three years of work have gone up in smoke. My goal is Barcelona [a prestigious pigeon race] in 2024. But now I can forget it," he said.

There are about 18,000 people in Belgium who kept pigeons as its global center for the sport, which is widely considered to have working-class origins. Nonetheless, it had increasingly attracted big money, and Belgian groups even organize many international competitions.

The Belgian pigeon federation called for the resignation of the leading officials at the race organizers, Liège Independent, on an emergency meeting last Monday. The federation said that the Liège pigeon society had broken the rules of the sport and it will be dealt with accordingly at a meeting with the minister responsible for animal welfare in the regional government of Wallonia on Thursday.