Purebred Pigeon SepOct 2024

25 – Purebred PIGEON their breed, they bear little resemblance to individuals from already established lineages in the West. Sam M. Shadeed was a very well-known pioneer, responsible for importing a great number of pairs of these breeds in the 1950’s; but the birds he was able to fetch were far from what a Middle Easterner would normally approve; perhaps that was what his budget allowed him back in the day. The circumstances in the past century made crossbreeding inevitable. Wendell M. Levi’s acclaimed book Encyclopedia of Pigeon Breeds has immortalized the appear- ances of Shadeed’s pigeons; many Middle Eastern breeds got unified under an umbrella term – such as “Lebanon’’ or “Swift.” Their original names have rarely been mentioned in bibliography if ever – a misfortune that is not exclusive to America. This has mis- led several generations of good-willed, passionate hobbyists across the world. Several of the written standards no longer had living examples, others dated back to late 1800’s testimonies from Europeans (Victor La Perre De Roo, Charles R. Darwin, James C. Lyell) who at most stayed in touch, directly or indirectly, with Indian or Iranian collaborators and have never really set foot in the Levant nor consulted Levantine Middle Easterners. This is equivalent to writing a book about British dog breeds, based on Turkish and Russian commentary. It is a given that every bird needs some work in the lifelong pursuit towards perfection, but in this case, immigrants were appalled to encounter that breeding towards current official standards – the very few that got published thus far – would have meant to stray away from the birds they have always known and cherished in their homelands. The newly arrived birds, some of which were disembarking on the continent for the first time in history, needed immediate protection. This is how the Middle Eastern Pigeon Club was born in 2018, an arduous project to promote the preservation of the verbatim appearance of these beautiful birds and prevent regional new trends to seep into the gene pool, vin- dicate their Middle Eastern legacy and pay respects to their countries of origin. Most importantly, to allow future generations to gaze upon the same animals that have ob- sessed people from so many different cul- tural backgrounds for so many years. The latter is obvious evidence that multicultur- alism is a rule of thumb for creating one of the most ambitious pigeon clubs in this era: several breeds are not exclusive to one single nation and everyone has something to bring to the table. Input from Middle Eastern elders is always sought after and treasured. Obscure books written in Arabic are fetched whenever they are spotted and translated by native speakers. Fifty six standards of perfection have been made so far. Every year more breeds are getting imported and settled successful- ly in the States, leading to the production of additional standards for their official recognition. This unprecedented, over- whelming collection of new and verified information written in such a widespread language as English for the first time, sets America as a shining beacon for anyone in the world interested in creating a Middle Eastern specialty club in their own country, breeding Middle Eastern pigeons, or sim- ply in getting to know them. The sheer volume of proposed entries has understand- ably brought some overlap with an already established club also set for the conservation of breeds with scarce presence in the United States, the Rare Breeds Pigeon Club, founded in An old book written in Arabic: Pigeons and Their Rearing , by Abdul Ghani Ghanem (1936) MEPC Champion at the 2019 Salt Lake Premier Show - Gold Miski Takla bred by Keaton Taylor