The ethics of pigeon racing

ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of academic research on the ethics of pigeon racing. We argue that pigeon racing is associated with significant benefits and disadvantages, but that the benefits that have been associated with it can be provided by alternative practices. Disadvantages include the competitive element associated with racing, which creates a strong incentive to kill birds where this is not in their best interests, as well as the welfare issues related to transportation, the widowhood system, the races themselves, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Whilst some of these disadvantages can be diminished, we argue that an ethical form of pigeon racing is not possible, and that it therefore ought to be prohibited. In the final part of this article, we question whether the moral problems associated with pigeon racing include the keeping of pigeons per se. On this issue, we argue that keeping pigeons does pose moral problems, but that more research is needed to explore whether these might be relatively minor compared to the problems associated with de-domesticating pigeons. The moral implications of our research extend beyond the world of pigeon racing as similar arguments should be used to question the racing and keeping of many other animals.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal
• ethics
• pigeons
• racing

Acknowledgments

Jan Deckers thanks the organisers of the ‘Sport, Animals, and Ethics Conference’ (25-29 May 2021), Sam Morris and Gabriela Tymowski-Gionet, for granting him the opportunity to present an earlier version of this paper, and the participants for their constructive feedback. Silvina Pezzetta thanks Nuria Kojusner for her useful and thoughtful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.