RPRA General Manager, Stewart Wardrop and Colin Hill Pigeons in War Volunteer Curator for the RPRA at Bletchley Park, travelled to Stowe House in Buckingham for a recording of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. He took along with him for valuation Dickin Medals won by wartime carrier pigeons, and was interviewed by the programme’s militaria expert, [...]
A short film about World War II carrier pigeon and Dickin Medal winner, Gustav, will be shown in the Short Film Corner at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May. The RPRA was approached last year by Dennis Da Silva of film-makers ArtHertz in London, who were looking to film the story of the famous bird that delivered [...]
The new RPRA price list came into effect from Wednesday 1st May. Download the new price list here
The 5.15pm race at Wetherby Racecourse on Sunday 28th April was titled ‘The Royal Pigeon Racing Association Lady Riders’ Handicap Hurdle Race’. The racecourse granted us the gesture as a thank you for the RPRA’s use of the site for pigeon liberations. The race was won by Catawollow at 12/1 – you can see the [...]
A campaign to erect an Animals in War Memorial monument in Bitts Park, Carlisle, has received the backing of the RPRA’s Patron, HM The Queen. Her Majesty has donated a squab from the Royal Loft to a sale to be held in aid of the cause. The full story is covered in this Cumberland News [...]
The Rules and Pooling Form for the RPRA Yearlings One Loft Race 2013 have now been published. Please see this link for further details of the planned Hotspot races and to download the forms.
Yasmin Bailey, a BSc Honours student at the University of Chester, produced a dissertation titled ‘Do Racing Pigeons have a Colour or Calorific Preference?’ as part of her course in Animal Behaviour and Welfare. In three stages over 32 days, she gave eight birds foods of different colour and calorific values – the results were [...]
This statement is issued on behalf of the following Organisations which represent pigeon racing in the UK: Royal Racing Pigeon Association, Welsh Homing Pigeon Union, North West Homing Union, Scottish Homing Union and North of England Homing Union “As representatives of pigeon racing within the UK we are extremely concerned by findings from PETA’s investigation [...]
The RPRA’s General Manager, Stewart Wardrop, and One Loft Manager, Jeremy Davies, were interviewed by BBC Radio 4′s Environment Analyst Roger Harrabin over PETA’s claims of excessive cruelty in pigeon racing. Read the resulting article on the BBC website here.
A new website has just been launched called Poem Pigeon. Representative Simon Dale said: “We run a number of sites, including this new, free service. It’s a really simple and fun way to share poems with friends, family, colleagues, or even the whole world. Poems can be as long or as short as you like and follow [...]
