Right, now put yourself in this position, enter your loft and not a feather remains on any perch, just a stony silence. True value has to be seen not just in stock terms, as we pigeon fanciers spend a lot of time in our hobby, on any given day we spend time in feeding them and making sure they get as good a start in life that they need. The value that is stolen is not just the stock, it is the time we served looking after our birds, the thief is stealing experience as well as stock - plus real time.
Now, get your mind around this little question; if you take just one hour's pay at the basic national minimum rate of pay, £5.75p, times that by 365 and you end up with £2098.75p per annum, so my 50-plus years is worth £104,937.00p - that's the minimum value I have put into my birds.
So if a thief stole my stock and in doing so made me consider calling it a day, am I not entitled to expect compensation, double edged as it is not only from the thief but also from the buyer of the stolen stock? So how does one start fighting the man who is out for a fast buck and does not care about how he steals birds? Well first the Fancy needs to truly value the loss, because by doing so it gives us a way forward, the loss being a calculated loss times years of breeding pigeons. If worldwide every pigeon association recognised this formula as a compensation package it gives us leverage in pursuing the thieves and handlers of stolen birds in court. Now you might be asking just how do we know who stole what and where did they go? Money has a real way of talking and knows no barriers so think of a 10% reward on the conviction and return of the stock's real value.
If my birds went overnight by using the set 10% guide a reward of £10,493.70p could be earned by a stool pigeon, no it's not a joke that's the way to fight these pigeon thieves as if they knew that they might have to pay the full amount of compensation they might just reflect that it is not worth losing their freedom plus having to pay compensation.
All it takes is in setting the terms of compensation that is ruled by our National Pigeon Association, and an individual member is able to pursue the thief in a court of law. If you ask anybody to put a price on their stock we could get a figure, asking them for a total sum of what they have put into their stud you find the correct answer of the value. This might sound like fabulous amounts of money but in truth it is not, you're the one who is putting the effort in so start valuing your time a little better.
To any bad guys out there reading this copy of the Feathered World, first let me say you are doing this all wrong, breeding pigeons is so easy why not give it a try, you might like it with first-hand gratification and it is fun.
