Injured native pigeon dies

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32629, 10 June 1971, Page 12

Injured native pigeon dies

The badly-injured native pigeon which was found in Bishopdale on Sunday and treated and force-fed by Mrs A. Shand died yesterday morning.

Mrs Shand said yesterday that she should clarify a report in “The Press” yesterday which implied that she had not received any help from the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society or the police after her children had seen the injured bird on a neighbour’s roof. The two rangers of the society who were on duty at the time were involved in other work, she said. A policeman from Papanui had come in response to a call to the Police Force, and he was the man who finally captured the pigeon. "The Acclimatisation

Society does a wonderful job in looking after wildlife,” Mrs Shand said, “and I would not like it to be thought that anything I said was critical of it or the police.” Her main concern had been to draw the attention to people of the cruelty, apart from the illegality, of shooting of protected native birds which was friendly and therefore unafraid of humans, Mrs Shand said.

It was thought that the bird had a chance of surviving, and it had shown some improvement after being treated, but it had been too badly injured.