rats of the air

you just know we're going to be okay when this kind of thing is news:

THINGS NOT WORKING OUT FOR 9-11 PIGEONS

Sep 18, 2002 5:51 am US/Eastern

(1010 WINS)-JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Dozens of white pigeons released last week during a memorial service to commemorate the terrorist attacks were meant to be graceful symbols of the victims soaring toward the heavens.

But instead of flying majestically skyward, some soon became entangled with people at the event while others apparently fell into the Hudson River. Since then, several have been injured when they crashed into glass windows at several city office buildings and others were found dead.

Instead of getting homing pigeons, the kind used at weddings and other formal events, organizers of the Sept. 11 service bought their birds at a poultry shop in Newark.

"That's reprehensible," said Ellen Goldberg, a teacher at the nonprofit Raptor Trust bird hospital in Millington where some of the injured pigeons are being treated. "That's not how it's supposed to work."

Goldberg said some of the pigeons found near the city's monument to the attack victims were young and very thin, suffering from undernourishment and other problems.

"Usually, people who do white bird releases are people who raise pigeons, who feed them and fly them," Goldberg told The Jersey Journal of Jersey City for Wednesday's editions. "You don't buy birds in a poultry shop and just fling them."

Guy Catrillo, a member of the city's 9/11 Memorial Committee which organized the event, defended its decision. He said the city saved several hundred dollars by buying the 80 pigeons from the poultry shop and also spared them from a much worse fate.

"They're all free (and) they're not soup," he said, disputing claims that the pigeons were not adapting well to their new environment. "Pigeons are one of the most hardy animals God made."

Goldberg said the pigeons will be given to experienced bird handlers once their health improves. Susan Ryan, one of several people who have turned over injured birds to Goldberg, said the situation was ironic.

"They released these birds to commemorate the people who died, and they sent them to their deaths," she said.