Poi now also on 💙☁️

A "dove release" at a wedding or funeral is a death sentence for the birds. The white "doves" sold for releases aren't doves. They're domestic pigeons bred to be small and white, and they have no survival skills outside a coop. DIY releasers often buy white Ringneck Doves or King Pigeons, which have zero ability to navigate home. Nearly all of them die. Even professional releases with trained homing pigeons kill birds. Hawks take them in the air. Cars hit them when they land exhausted. They collide with windows. They get lost and starve. Rehabbers pull them in with broken wings, broken legs, raging trichomoniasis, and bodies so emaciated the birds can barely stand. One rehabber described treating a white pigeon from a release whose throat infection had hardened so completely it distorted the shape of his skull. There is no version of this tradition where the birds "fly away and live happily ever after." That's the marketing story. The reality is that you paid to traumatize and usually kill a domestic animal for a 15-second photo moment. If someone you know is planning a dove release for a wedding, funeral, or celebration, tell them. Bubbles, sparklers, dried flower petals, or ribbon throws all photograph beautifully and don't kill anything. The birds are not props, they are live animals that need proper care.