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'Dove' Trainers Seek Peace With Worried Bird Lovers

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By PHILIP MORGAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

Updated: 05/21/2008 12:11 am

TAMPA - It may not sound quite so romantic, but those white doves you plan to release at your wedding? They're pigeons.
Dear Abby didn't know either, apparently. A recent column she ran really ruffled feathers in the ceremonial-bird-release biz.

Abby ran a letter April 28 from a reader who warned that releasing doves at weddings, graduations, sporting events and other celebrations is a death sentence for the birds. Abby consulted a zoo docent, who told her that doves have no homing instincts, so they can get lost and become an easy target for predators.

That would be true, says Rob Nicholls, if professionals were releasing actual doves. Nobody does, though.

"They're white homing pigeons, but we call them doves for professional use."

Nicholls, who owns White Birds Express in Hudson with his wife, Sally, said the Abby column upset some customers.

"I was doing a funeral, and the minister confronted me."

The preacher calmed down once Nicholls explained that the pure white pigeons he uses are trained to fly back to their roost.

Most people don't know the difference. Both breeds are from the same family, Columbidae. The homing pigeons, also called rock doves, are much larger than, say, a white ring neck dove.

Jackie Greenaugh, owner of Sarasota Dove Release, was so concerned about customer response to Abby's column that she took out an ad in a Bradenton newspaper clarifying the issue.

"I love my birds and would never do anything to harm them," she wrote. "God gave them wings of flight. They love to fly, and I love watching them."

She and Nicholls were among the legions of bird business owners who appealed to Dear Abby to clear up the matter in a follow-up column. The columnist will run a clarifying column May 29, according to a spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate.

Greenaugh said she couldn't imagine anyone releasing actual, helpless doves. "I just don't think anybody is that bad."

In any event, it wouldn't be practical, says Chip Shiver, who runs Doves of Peace of Plant City.

"Anybody who uses an actual dove for release, you're pretty much throwing them away."

Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at pmorgan@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7609.

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