All of us love pigeons, most of us love racing, but not all of us live in an area where we can compete against a decently large selection of other lofts. Some of us love the sport but just can’t do all the training that is required be truly successful in young bird racing. Others of us do well in local racing and want to see what our birds can do against birds from other top breeders and racers….so, we ship our youngsters of to “Out of Area Futurities” and “One Loft Races”. Shipping birds out to races has become a big part of our sport and a way for some to get involved who otherwise might be left on the side lines.
Those of you who did try to participate in shipping birds to out of area races (or even to friends or when selling birds) may have encountered problems this past spring in getting your birds shipped via the United States Postal Service (USPS). If not, you were lucky. Those running races undoubtedly encountered the frantic calls from would be participants that the USPS wouldn’t take their birds. This seriously impacted the big races across the country as, fewer entries mean smaller prizes. Our ally in this struggle has been Bird Shippers of America. They have been key in restoring the right to ship birds via USPS through their tireless lobbying on behalf of all shippers of live birds.
I would like to be able to tell you that this is all resolved, but, unfortunately, I cannot. I can tell you where it stands as of this writing, though. Right now, the USPS will take pigeons as Express Mail, as long as the exterior temperatures on a daily basis are between 40 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The USPS will take them at any Post Office. The earlier requirement to drive to other cities to ship birds has been suspended. Contract air carriers are still problematic for the USPS. Delta still will not make transfers of “lives”. They have to have a direct flight in order to take them. Negotiations with Northwest, concerning shipping of lives as airmail is still ongoing, although it appears to be stalled. US Airways and American Airlines are shipping airmail for the USPS again following a period when they had been suspended for poor service. Although there is a statute on the books requiring carriers to accept as mail all shipments of day-old poultry and other lives as postal regulations allow, the USPS has contractually exempted FedEx from this statutory provision. FedEx now operates the Eagle Service previously operated by the USPS, therefore, this carrier is not available to USPS for “live”.
In summary, as of this writing, all Post Offices should be taking pigeons if it is not too hot (or too cold). They should not make you drive to another city to ship your birds. How they ship them is still problematic, so be sure to check with the Post Office near you to verify availability of carriers for certain dates and locations. We will continue to support Birdshippers of America’s efforts to get a permanent solution to this problem and you can find current status of their lobbying on their website at: birdshippers.org.