The world of pigeons is so complex that when you hear about these birds the easiest thing to do is get lost, or confuse a homing pigeon with a sporting pigeon. Be that as it may, the sector is suffering a wave of sport pigeon thefts in Catalonia. The managers of some associations assure it. In the last two months, the small Asociación Club Colombicultura la Florida in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda has suffered six buttons, the last one last morning.
On the phone, the president of the association, Juan Martínez Salcedo, appears desperate, frustrated and impotent. Around one in the morning they made a butrón in the basement of one of the twelve dovecotes in which the 44 members keep their birds. The land is municipal.
The value of each pigeon is incalculable, according to its career and the list of prizes. In this case, the thief took 28 copies with an approximate value of between 500 and 1,000 euros each.
“We have strengthened security. We have set an alarm. But last morning, for whatever reason the system did not go off and when it did, the guy was already out with the birds”. The president of the association explains that they alerted the Mossos d'Esquadra of Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, who are aware of the situation and previous robberies. “The scientific police came and took prints. But it is of little use if when they arrest him they release him immediately.”
And that happened in the previous butron. The alarm went off on time and the associates managed to detain the thief who was arrested by a Mossos patrol. "At six in the evening, the guy was already on the street and a few days later he stole again."
The associates suspect that, at least as far as their sporting pigeons are concerned, it is always the same thief who blows a hole in the concrete structure of the loft, gains access, and takes the birds that he can carry on a trip. .
What does he do with them? "Well, whatever you want. He trades them for good birds which he later sells and has cash.”
The one in Santa Perpètua was not the only theft related to pigeon racing in the last few hours. At Roca del Vallès, in a training facility for these precious birds, they also entered at dawn and, in addition to taking a good number of young pigeons ready to be trained, the thieves carried off the facility's material, cages, drinkers, feeders ...
"The problem is that there is a great lack of knowledge in Catalonia at the institutional level about pigeon sport competitions and that is why the theft of these birds is not valued or treated as it deserves," he laments.
The competition consists, after the release of a female called "release pigeon" endowed with a white feather that stands out on the tail and that distinguishes it, in courtship by the males that participate in said test or release to get it to take it to her dovecote or spend as much time with her. During the development of the test, various situations occur that add up to the final score of each horse.
