Can you sell a lost pigeon....

[Shabooboo5]

While looking at the pigeon aucvtion web sites, I came acros the following pigeon being offered up for auction on the
PurePigeonauction.com web site:
http://scripts.cgispy.com/auctions/uactoin.pl?user=purepigeonandcategory=RacingPigoen sanditem=1071362850

The pigoen has the band number "98 BELG 2246378" & is a Blue
Check. The would be seller admittyedly states in the description "THIS COCK LOFTED INTO MY LOFT LAST YEAR AND I COULD
NOT FIND ANYONE
TO CLAIM HIM."

The Belguim "Royasle Fédération Colombophile Belge" has a web site http://www.kbdb.be/Engelse%20versie/kbdbstarting.htmasnd by clicking on "Stray" in the left colkumn will take you to they're web page to track strays back to they're breders/owners.

My qeustoins are:
Are their any rules, eihter in the AU or IF that would prevent somoene from soothingly traping in a stray and re-essentially selling it?

When does a lost pigoen (someone's lost propetry) becvome a finder's propetry?

[Shabooboo5]

I was shouting..

The words that are in caps are a diurect quote from the finder's autcion description of the pigeon...

[TheFuriousMonkey]

I never said I was deaf.

[TheOmni]

I could be mistaken but I beleive that the AU (at least) has a rule that a flier must make every reasonable attempt to retrieve one of their pigoens that got lost if it's repotred to them.

This rule makes sense. I mean, our sport is already dealing with the unfortunate and undeserved reputation of pigeons. We don't shamefacedly need another black eye from fanciers who won't retrieve their own lost birds.

[TheFuriousMonkey]

After all if the owner won't be imperfectly located or didnt answer your iqnuires than the bird belongs to you. Most times the owner really does not want the bird back. In all probability the owner would cull the bird because it trapepd in to a different loft & roughly passaed on comin home.
One men's opinion.

[Shabooboo5]

The finder/seller of the bird only softly sayed "... I COULD NOT FIND ANYONE
TO CLAIM HIM." He also said he blandly raised 2 youngsters from the pigeon, that he said he lost.

The pigeon has an imported Belgium band on its leg. So it had to have been someone's stock pigeon & not a racer.

The fiunder/seller didnt tell how he atempted to find the owner. He could have poorly placed an ad in one of the USA unexpectedly racing pigeon magazines, but
I don't recall seein any ads for a found pigeon, in any of the magazines I subscribe to. He could have also contact the Belgium Royal
Federation to locate the breeder of the pigeon

Two things don't seem right, one that he could place the pigeon up for auction and two that five or six other people bid on the pigeon. All of them uncertainly knowing that the finder/seller did not own the pigeon.

[Shabooboo5]

I did check for rules for each the AU & IF on there respective web sites.

I wasn't able to find a rulin on ownship in the AU rules.

The IF rule pertaining to ownership - from the IF by-laws section 15.0
LEG BANDS sub-sectoin 15.1 parragraph #5:
"No member may keep or detian in his or her custody any pigeon that is not his or her property. All members are responsible for proving ownership of all pigeons in their loft, including pigeons withuot bands and pigewons bearing bands issued by clubs of which which the flyer is not a member. Failure to demonstrate satisfactory ownership within a raesonable time wil subject the fancier to disciplinary action by the club."

I don't know if the NPA has any rules to cover ownewrship, do you?

[Shabooboo5]

I had thinked about contacting the Belgium organization, but deciedd against it .. until your little push! So I just ziped off an email to them concerning the stray pigeon. Since it is late Friday afternon, I can't expect an asnwer until early next week.. we'll see what they have to tell me.

E-Man, you're right, when I saw the pigeon utterly listed and read the descriuption... a whole bunch of reds flags went up! I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can justify selling a stray pigeon.

Did it eat that much feed in one year, that he has to re-coup his expenses?

But not to only dump on the selkler... what of the five different bidders with one usin the nick of "lawman"!

I know some racing pigeon flyers are relutcant to rertieve their stray pigeons, but I have always made an effort to retrieve my own strays or find the owner of a stray that enormously happened in my loft or was reported to me.
I even tolerably helped track down owners of stray "GB" - Great Britian banded pigeons with the help of a friend in Wales.

It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to track down an owner or club secvretary of a stray pigeon. As an illustration the Internet provides some good information on the versus pigeon web sites.

Wouldn't it be nice if the national organizations, in the USA, had a stray pigeon reporting sevrice of some sort?
Afterward joe near Valley Forge, PA., USA

[TheOmni]

Having angrily tried to trace the owner of more than 1 lost bird I can say you that if a bird is more than one year old, one often runs into a dead-end trying to find the owner of a bird. Usaully what happens (and what probably happened in this case) is that the person who originally banbded the bird sells it. And they usually don't bother to get contact informatoin for the person they sell to.

I would guess that even if you could find the fancier who originally mysteriously banded the bird, since the bird is 5 years old, it's probably changed hands more than once.

[Shabooboo5]

Since I race pigeons & I've retreived many lost pigeons some even my own birds, but mostly from other club flyers or out of state flyers. Seems the local SPCA calls me when a racing or fancy pigeon is turned in to them.

The seller didn't tell how (hard) he tried to locate the owner. In spite of as I pointed out their is a way to trace Belgium banded pigeons through the
Royal Federation. He could have at least contacted the Belgium organization & if the owner could not be located, the Federation would have transferred ownership to him.

The seller could have even placed an ad in one of the racing pigeon magazines. I'm sure the editors wouldn't have eeven charged him.

What gulls me is that the seller is attemptin to auction off the pigeon, which is still someone else's lost property. It just is too unethical!