Pigeon fanciers in a flap over Brexit quarantine flock-up, seek exemption from EU laws
- Reference: 1618504389
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/15/pigeon_fanciers_fear_brexit_quarantine/
- Source link:
In the trans-Channel races, the UK flying rats birds are released from France, after which they wing it across the water in an attempt to beat each other and previous speed records. The new EU animal control regulation
[1]PDF
, which comes into effect on 16 April, is in-heron-tly a problem for the fanciers because their feathered friends won't be in beak condition to participate. Under the hawk-ward new rule, the birds would need to be quarantined in France for weeks before the race. Participants feel they've been flocked over as their frequent fliers need daily exercise to stay in shape.[2]
Prior to Brexit, Alan Todd, a member of Winlaton Homing Society in Gateshead, explained to the [3]BBC : "They would leave here on Thursday, get to France on Friday and race back to Britain on Saturday."
He added: "It's got us all up in arms. I think it could kill the sport."
[4]
Pigeon fanciers, who will often be animal husbandry experts as well as keen participants in the races, are very committed hobbyists, often closely guarding special tweetments, such as "racing day" food mix secrets, training regimes and breeding tips.
And the hobby is far from cheep. Fanciers can spend thousands of pounds pampering their beloved avian athletes with special enclosures and expensive off the shelf supplements.
April FAIL as IETF's funny-but-dodgy draft doc arrives a week early [5]READ MORE
As an additional bird-en, if you don't have your own "loft", you need to pay to house your little Steven Seagull in someone else's. A specially bred and trained pigeon can set you back thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Ruling the roost so far is "New Kim", a two-year-old female pigeon, who was sold for €1.6m (£1.4m, $1.9m), at a Belgian auction in [6]November last year .
Todd added that the un-pheasant rules were for the birds and that they might mean an end to the sport: "A lot of people are planning of walking away from [pigeon racing] because of this."
Racing pigeons are a type of homing pigeon, so it's been suggested by some at Reg HQ that a few wise quackers might turn away from competition and go into the comms business.
Theoretically they could be used to carry messages under an IP over Avian Carrier (RFC 2549) system, although that would almost certainly fall a-fowl of the quarantine rules as well, not to mention a few others, commented an IP law supremo, who quipped: "If they wanted to build an IPoAC system, they - with their many birds - may be well placed to do so." The legal eagle went on to suggest that said businesses could be called SquawkSquawk, Birdish Telecom, or A&Avian, adding that however, "it would be highly unfortunate if, having built an IPoAC network, they were subject to the myriad rules and regulations regarding running even private communications networks."
[7]
Proving everyone is the centre of their own universe, Bob Mackie from Newcastle, who has been racing birds for 60 years, told the Beeb: "It's probably something that has fallen through the net in terms of negotiations for Brexit; we are collateral damage." ®
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[1] https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/animals/docs/ah_law_regulation-proposal_qanda.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YHi3d6sH9YSBYwo9PXLj4gAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-56752582
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YHi3d6sH9YSBYwo9PXLj4gAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/26/ietfs_fail_draft_doc_arrives_a_week_early/
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/world/europe/racing-pigeon-auction-record.html
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YHi3d6sH9YSBYwo9PXLj4gAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
FTTC
Flier To The Coop.
HTTPS
Hyper Text Transfer by Pigeon System
Pah that's so old, you need to modernise with Fiber To The Pigeon.
A modern high-bandwidth implementation would surely be a spectacular sight. It would also bring windfall to the farming industry, loads of free fertilizer. And just think about job opportunities for all currently unemployed bird shit collectors!
Seriously?
Brexit happened, and the world is not only in the middle of a pandemic but at a very dangerous phase of it. They'll just have to suck it up.
These people are really for the birds to even be asking.
Re: Seriously?
You can't use the pandemic to avoid blaming the government for failing to negotiate diligently. The same is going to be true for all kinds of events and the conclusion has to be that the UK government wanted it this way.
If the pandemic (or even that old chestnut "the children") is to be invoked then it should have been to extend the transition period.
Re: Seriously?
Its a good lockdown hobby, owners don't travel with the birds* and given that millions of wild bird transit the channel every year (in both directions) I'd say it was a reasonable request.
*They'd have a hard job beating them back home to clock in the arrivals.
Re: Seriously?
They don't have a leg to stand on. After all, as the government insisted on telling us, brexit was what the people voted for. By voting the con men servatives in again at at the last election, the country gave Boris a mandate to screw us over as much as he desired.
Hawk-ward?
Under the hawk-ward new rule
Surely auk-ward?
Re: Hawk-ward?
Great!
Round trip?
If you made the race there-and-back, without landing would that be allowed?
Would the Armée de l'Air be equipped to intercept 1000s of British pigeons ?
Should we bread a Spitfire Pigeon ?
Re: Round trip?
'Should we bread a Spitfire Pigeon ?'
Might be nice with some katsu sauce?
Re: Round trip?
Speckled Jim was very tasty
Re: Round trip?
If you made the race there-and-back, without landing would that be allowed?
Can't they just have them start in another part of the British Empire?
What will the bird pun-ters do? Oh - I see they're winging it somehow. Well done!
Brexit.
Means Brexit. What part of, "Eject ourselves from the EU." do all these people not understand ? This was all very clearly laid out by Leave.EU and Vote Leave. Just pipe-down and accept we now live in the 1970s again. It's what was voted for. Just think about all the pigeon racing we'll be able to do with countries outside the EU: AsiaPac, India and African nations. Who's going to be moaning next ? Brexit voting 'expats' about being thrown out of EU countries for not meeting clear and simple residency requirements ?
Re: Brexit.
Yup. Why do all these people feel that they should somehow be exempt from the very thing they voted for?
Unless they feel it should only affect other people.
2016
The EU laid this bit out pretty clearly too. It's an April 2016 regulation with some implementation delayed to April 2021. That Q&A PDF linked in the article is from March 2016.
The referendum was in June 2016.
Re: Brexit.
the ex-pats (polled) were all for the remain though, if I remember correctly, they were not allowed to vote in the referendum. Pretty ironic, like turkeys not allowed to vote on the thankgiving menu...
Re: Brexit.
Plenty of beer swilling Leave voters on the Costas now crying because they have no right of residency. (Didn't bother to apply or didn't declare enough earnings.) Their pigeons have well and truly come home to roost. Welcome back!
Re: Brexit.
Welcome to the pig eons, it's done so we're going to have to live with it for a long time.
Re: Brexit.
I don't mind leave-voting expats coming back from Spain, but I don't really want them living next door ...
Puntastic
I dove loved to have written this article myself!
Right on coo, are they robin peter to pay Paul? Or starling into the abyss?
The French might cormorant to their way of thinking though.
It's part of regional culture too - partridge-itional you could say.
OK, I'm done.
Quarantine?
Quarantine is just silly. It's not like they would be heading out to the museum or the pub. The sooner they fly away the less chance they have of transmitting a virus locally.
What
happens with the migrating birds... do they have to stop in France to pick up a visa... or even a mastercard in order to cross the channel now?
Re: What
They can stay in Swangatte migrant camp.
Re: What
Well importing coconuts is now a big problem.
Can't the Royal Pigeon Racing Association invoke the war?
Pigeons are WAR heroes after all.
Meet Winkie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAAUqOrAvMw
Paul Reuter
Will be turning in his grave at this news.
Bert
will truly be riveted to his radio now, not to miss any news on his favourite animal.
"Theoretically they could be used to carry messages under an IP over Avian Carrier (RFC 2549) system"
Yes well, the UK is still in the process of modernising it's internet infrastructure.