E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA Chinese shipping magnate has paid a world record-high $328,000 for a Dutch pigeon, according to an international pigeon auction house.
Belgium-based PIPA, short for Pigeon Paradise, said the bird was one of 245 put up for an online auction by Pieter Veenstra of the Dutch village of Drachtstercompagnie, Radio Netherlands reported.
The auction total take of $2.5 million was also a record, PIPA said.
The buyer of the most-expensive pigeon on record, PIPA said, is Hu Zhen Yu, who runs a shipbuilding company in China.
Hu also is the owner of a South China pigeon-racing group and told PIPA he intends to increase his focus on the sport, which is popular in Britain, Belgium, Holland and Germany, the Telegraph of London said.
He intends to breed the female pigeon rather than race it, the Telegraph said.
Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, the owner of PIPA, noted in a 2010 interview a growing interest in pigeons by Chinese buyers. PIPA, which sent representatives to pigeon exhibitions in China last year, also boasts on its website that prices for pigeons are soaring.
That has some in the sport concerned, the Telegraph said.
"We must not forget pigeon racing is a simple sport to be enjoyed by all who wish to become involved for the right reasons," Ken Ambler, a British pigeon fancier told the Telegraph.
Ambler said the sport he took up 70 years ago was transformed with expensive birds now "housed in luxury" compared to "the basic orange box lofts of yesteryear," the Telegraph reported.
The previous top-selling pigeon was Euro Diamond, an 8-year-old retired Flemish pigeon famed for long flights. It sold for $225,000 in November 2010, according to media reports.
Leave a Comment:
Another IGNORANT ANIMAL EXPLOITER!
My Sympathies to the Poor Pigeon!
Are you kidding? That pigeon will have a more comfortable life than you or I.
Really Bill after that clown gets tired of this pigeon,or when it no longer cannot perform he'll Chuck It.He invested 328 thousand bucks into this bird, he's going to make sure he gets his monies worth!He's an Exploiter!
These Birds can live to be 20 yrs old.I have 2 ring neck doves that are 22 yrs. old.Their life span in captivity can be 26 to 30 yrs.It's almost the same for a pigeon.They're almost a life time commitment!
I bet he won't chuck it. Meat is meat. Squab is priced meat in PRC.
how is that you get to call a buyer a "CLOWN"? Because he make an unGodly amount of money or because he is not an American? We don't know jack about him nor the race associations he belongs to.
CHUCK IT???? We should talk. If you ware so concern then we should be looking a little harder toward our own racing industry (quarter horses, greyhounds and thoroughbreds). I am down with jokes here and there (like Bill / cida). But come on people, have a little empathy or are we just a bunch of sociopaths?
You are all blinded by ---- well your blinders
It was the Inter-Services Intelligence that hid Osama bin Laden, it was Musherif who collaborated with the Taliban and Al-Qaida and he most probably knew of 911 before it happened as did most of Saudi Arabia's royal family..
Time to stop playing games with these two faced back stabbing rat people and bring our troops home. No more money to Pakistan, put them on the terrorist list. Capture Pervez Musharraf and put him on trial, build up India's military give them the money we gave Pakistan. Don't deal with the Taliban, they are two faced and terroist. Embargo Pakistan's trade for being a state supporter of terrorist...
huh? however if you want to talk about 2 faced back stabbing rat people, you should interview some of the American Indians, the Kurds, the Afghans who fought for the Americans, the South Vietnameese.... the list is reasonably long.
I got no problem bringing our troops home, because they did not belong there in the first place. But to blame other countries who don't play nice is simply ignorant. You have got to do what is best for your citizens.... IT IS JUST THAT SIMPLE.
thturd... I thinks someone got on the wrong plane... lol
and you should be arguing with him about pigeons... come on people... focus
Ooops this is suppose to be on the "BBCSecret Report Reveals Pakistan Ties" Somehow I got over here when I posted it???
I guess I am the pigeon here, the bad thing about it is once you are that plane you can't get off until it lands...
lol Ron, it's hard to stay away from a good pigeon story... oh, I know!
In China they pay their workers less than a dollar an hour, and have to put up nets across the roofs at the sweat shops to prevent them from killing themselves, and this douche uses their blood money to buy a $328,000 pigeon.
Hey ! I have an Idea. What if we put little messages in capsules and attach them to the leg of pigeons. Why we could send mail faster than the USPS. )joak(
You are telling me a pigeon can cross the pacific to Hawaii?
He just wants an alternative way to send uncensored correspondence out of the Workers Paradise...
His example will further encourage the numerous poor in China to work harder, sacrifice more to reach the top!
Hey Everyone you are forgetting, with this guys wealth, it's like he spent $3.28. His money, his choice how to spend it.
Plenty of examples right here in the good ole USA of people spending much more for a horse. How is this different? Is it because he's Chinese? What has that got to do with it?
Guess he's gonna race that baby at RENO! Dial it in and LET'ER RIP!
Wait 'til we see what the pigeon drops on the Chinese magnate. :D
He was quoted as saying "the party rocks"
Pigeons go for HOW much?
Good grief, I'm in the wrong industry. I could be catching wild pigeons here in San Fran and clocking their speeds. There has to be one of the damned feathered rats fast enough to be worth a couple thousand around here...
Would make a tasty plate of squab for sure!
i hope the bird flies away and then @!$%# on him like never before with the other bird also it will be a lot f @!$%# coming down like i say . " @!$%# HAPPPENS"
It's his money so we shouldn't care about how he wants to spend it, right? So let's not care or worry about the kids found dead in the streets over there each morning, starved to death! What a miserable excuse for a human being!!!!!!!!!!
How...the hell......do you race a pigeon?
Go to www.pigeon.org right here in the good ol' USA to become knowledgeable about the sport of "Race Horses of the Sky".....