05/09/2026
This is a must read !
Usually I take time before writing posts like this. Usually I calm down, choose my words carefully, and stay politically correct. But tonight I need to say something honestly.
Please stop thinking that reporting an animal in distress is the same as helping it.
Contacting a rescue organisation is very much appreciated. It matters. But if you see an animal suffering and then walk away believing your responsibility ends there, you are leaving the rest to exhausted volunteers who are already carrying more than most people realise.
People in rescue are volunteers, they are ordinary people with jobs, children, health issues, financial stress, responsibilities, and lives of their own, yet every single day they still choose to answer the call.
Not only are rescuers expected to respond immediately, but they are then expected to somehow organise transport because a very high percentage of people do not want to transport the animal themselves.
There are also only a limited number of pigeon-specific carers in Victoria, which makes the situation even more dire. The workload is constantly falling onto the same small group of people. Often, we are organising volunteer transporters to drive to someone’s house simply to take a bird to a vet that is three minutes up the road because the finder “can’t get there.” Meanwhile, those same volunteers are already juggling multiple rescues, emergency cases, work, families, and exhaustion.
Tonight, a pigeon was reported at a school.
From the photo, it looked bad. It appeared the photo may have been taken hours earlier, maybe around 4pm. By the time we were alerted, it was late at night.
An amazing volunteer transporter immediately got in the car and drove 25 minutes to the school to search for this bird in the dark. I was sitting at my computer at 10pm studying Google Maps trying to match a close-up photo of a gate to the actual location because that was all we had to go on. At the same time, an incredible pigeon carer agreed to take the bird immediately because from the photo it looked critical.
Four people mobilised for one pigeon.
And when they got there they found that the bird had died alone.
Its leg was snapped. Its wing was broken. It would have been in immense pain.
The person who originally saw the bird could have picked it up. They could have seen immediately how severe the injuries were and taken it to the vet just three minutes up the road.
Instead, hours passed and the bird died suffering.
Tonight, the volunteer transporter, Em, has taken the bird home and will bury it. In death, it will at least be treated with the dignity and care that it did not receive in its final moments alive.
We understand people have commitments. Maybe they don’t drive. Maybe they are in a rush, Maybe they are unwell. Maybe they are scared of birds. But there are almost always ways around these things. We know, because we do it, we see rescues do it daily.
Ask a neighbour, ask a friend, ask someone at work, ask a passerby, flag someone down.
Take responsibility for the situation you have witnessed and see it through. That is the most helpful thing you can do.
We are also very aware, in the pigeon world, owners are often part of this problem too.
Too many pigeons are not homed responsibly and when they become lost, injured, exhausted, or unable to return home, too many owners simply do not want them back. These birds then end up starving on the streets, terrified and confused, relying entirely on strangers and rescue volunteers to survive.
At some point, after seeing animal after animal suffer unnecessarily, it becomes impossible to keep absorbing the excuses about why people can’t help without breaking a little inside. You cannot keep asking people who are already drowning to carry the full weight of everyone else’s inaction too.
Compassion is not just feeling sad for an animal. Compassion is acting.
To the people who are not rescuers, but who still stop, pick the animal up, make calls, organise transport, ask for help, or simply refuse to walk away, THANKYOU!
Please, if you ever find an animal in distress, don’t just report it and walk away.
Be the person who stays.
Be the person who acts.
Be the reason that animal gets a chance or at least a dignified death. 💚
