Flap Over Pet Pigeons : Owner Appeals City Order to Get Rid of Racing Birds

Pigeon racer Albert Navarro wants to set the record straight: His birds are not responsible for the splatters on his neighbors’ cars and rooftops.

The sleek and athletic pigeons that live in his back yard are as graceful as thoroughbreds compared to the dumpy birds that hang around parks scrounging for bread, he said.

A Los Angeles County health official inspected Navarro’s pigeon loft on Carron Drive and said it violated no codes. But the city of Pico Rivera thinks otherwise.

After neighbors complained about Navarro’s 37 pigeons, a city code enforcement officer ordered him to get a pigeon permit. And in May, the city rejected his request, then ordered him to get rid of the birds.

“They don’t really know anything about the birds,” said Navarro, 35. “They think it will be a nuisance for neighbors. But we’re not doing any damage to anybody.”

Navarro challenged the city’s ruling last month.

City Planning Director David Hertzing said municipal codes forbid homeowners with less than 6,000 square feet of property from keeping pigeons. Navarro’s house and yard add up to 5,640 square feet.

Navarro has 37 pigeons, 34 more than allowed even if his property were the right size, Hertzing said.

County officials said the birds sometimes carry diseases that can be contracted by pets and humans, and that dirty bird cages can lead to other health hazards. Pigeon owners say, however, that they keep their birds clean because they have money and time invested in them.

Hertzing conceded that the city’s law may be out of date, and city staff will determine if it should be changed.

Navarro’s request to keep his birds goes before the City Council next month. He will be helped by a lawyer from the California State Pigeon Racing Organization, which has about 1,850 members.

In three years, the group has fought 16 cases and spent nearly $30,000 in lawyers’ fees to challenge local pigeon ordinances, spokesman Ron Froehlich said.

Froehlich said the group believes that Pico Rivera officials have confused wild pigeons and those bred for racing.

Racing pigeons are trained from birth, and every morning they are released from their lofts to exercise. The birds do not eat until they return.

On a recent morning, Navarro trapped one of his racers for its early morning flight. He held its slender, gray body between his palms momentarily before releasing it into the sky with a flutter of wings.

Half an hour later, the racer returned home, and Navarro gave a series of short whistles. The bird darted back into the loft where it remained for the rest of the day.

The sport of pigeon racing draws enthusiasts from throughout the Los Angeles area nearly every weekend. Owners transport their birds to points across the Central Valley--from Bakersfield to Sacramento--to attend competitions.

At a designated time, the pigeons are released and fly home at speeds of up to 60 m.p.h. The fastest birds win prizes.

Froehlich said the sport is harmless and so are the birds, which is why pigeon racers are fighting regulation by local governments.

Last year in Whittier, a local pigeon owner won his fight against the city to keep 75 birds. The city later changed the local code to allow pigeon owners to keep up to 100 birds.

Two years ago in Garden Grove, the City Council increased the number of birds a pigeon owner could keep from 10 to 100 after the Pigeon Racing Organization challenged a local ordinance.

In Pico Rivera, Karen L. Goldman, an attorney who represents the pigeon racers, said she will argue that the size of Navarro’s property should not be used to determine whether he can keep his birds. If his loft is clean, the birds do not pose a threat to neighbors, she said.

“We really feel this is over-regulation,” she said.

Navarro has taken care to make his pigeon loft attractive. He painted it white and roofed it with asphalt shingles to match his home.

Every morning before he goes to work as a supervisor for a roofing company, Navarro religiously takes a broom and a pail and cleans the floor of the loft.

Across the street from Navarro’s well-tended yard, a 30-foot antenna towers over the neighborhood. On one side a neighbor has piled a waist-high stack of used tires, and another neighbor has erected a satellite dish on his rooftop.

Navarro said those things might be considered eyesores, but “I’ve kept my mouth shut. I believe in live and let live.”

Navarro says he is fighting to keep his pigeons because they are a family hobby. His two daughters have adopted several of the pigeons as pets. After school they spend time with the birds they have named Lady, Tiffany and Brandy.

If Navarro loses his appeal to the council, he said he will be unable to give away his pigeons because they would fly home. If he did not feed them, they would linger on his property until they die, he said.

“When you’ve been doing it for 25 years, that’s your hobby, your sport,” Navarro said as his pigeons cooed around him. “It’s part of you.”