The most beautiful, the fastest, the most expensive: racing pigeon fans get their money’s worth at Europe’s largest exhibition at the Dortmund Trade Fair in Germany. The highlight of the two-day event with 130 exhibitors was an auction in which an animal from the German champion “Team Kallen” from Moers on the Lower Rhine achieved the top price of 5,900 euros on Saturday afternoon.
The entire proceeds from the auction were many times higher and will benefit research projects and aid campaigns in German racing pigeon breeding. A total of around 1,000 racing pigeons could be viewed, including the 27 “super stars” of the German Racing Pigeon Exhibition (DBA). These animals will take part in the 2024 Homing Pigeon Olympics in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The most beautiful female, the “standard female”, and the male counterpart “standard bird” are owned by a breeder from Forchheim in Bavaria. The fastest animals come from the breeding of the German champion “Team Kallen” from Moers. The most beautiful and fastest are determined in a complex process; criteria such as overall impression, shape and strength or musculature as well as kilometers flown (between 200 and 600) play a role.
The Association of German Racing Pigeon Breeders has around 25,000 members. In the boom times of the 1960s there were more than 100,000. In Europe, there is still a comparatively lively racing pigeon scene in Poland, the association said. Since last year, carrier pigeons have been on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. Nevertheless, the sporting use of racing pigeons is controversial: critics see the birds being exposed to considerable stress during races.
