The White Rock Dove
All our members use this breed of dove, and only this breed. Why? Because it is the only Dove with the ability to find its way home from a distance of up to 600 miles! The Rock dove is the same as the wonderful Racing Pigeon, and it is widely known that these birds are superb athletes with an incredible homing ability.
Any other breed of dove will either fly to the nearest tree or roof top and stay there until it starves to death, or becomes prey to hawks or cats. These Doves have very little homing ability, and for the reasons above it is totally cruel to release these Doves into the wild.
The RSPCA are becoming increasingly alreted to people who release fantails or garden doves.
The Rock Dove however is a very clever bird and can fly up to 600 miles in 1 day non stop (well we think its non stop!) The ability to do this has largley been provided by mother nature, however to hone their skills, the birds are trained from a very young age to navigate their way home.
The training of the Doves does not involve any form of cruelty. It is no different than teaching a baby to walk, and then as it grows helping it practice running for school sports day and eventually training it to run a marathon. They do it because it is instinctive, and us humans have kept them fit and healthy with the right balance of nutrition to help them on their way.
Our Doves are free to fly on a daily basis and are never locked up 24 hours a day.
Any one of our members would be happy for you to visit their lofts, so you can see first hand how the Doves are kept, and get used to handling them before your event if that is what you wish.
We would strongly advise that you establish the breed of Dove being used for your event before the big day. Ask to see photos or images and always ask for customer testimonials.