release dove

File:WhiteDove912.jpg

Typically one or more white doves are released. Sometimes doves are called pigeons, there is no distinction.{{Cite web |last=Bereford |first=Denise |title=White Pigeon / Release Dove: Breed Guide |url=https://pigeonpedia.com/white-pigeon-release-dove/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Pigeonpedia |language=en-us}} Usually domestic rock doves (Columba livia domestica) bred for small size and white coloration are released due to their homing ability.{{Cite journal |last1=Stringham |first1=Sydney A. |last2=Mulroy |first2=Elisabeth E. |last3=Xing |first3=Jinchuan |last4=Record |first4=David |last5=Guernsey |first5=Michael W. |last6=Aldenhoven |first6=Jaclyn T. |last7=Osborne |first7=Edward J. |last8=Shapiro |first8=Michael D. |date=2012-02-21 |title=Divergence, convergence, and the ancestry of feral populations in the domestic rock pigeon |journal=Current Biology |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=302–308 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2011.12.045 |issn=0960-9822 |pmc=3288640 |pmid=22264611|bibcode=2012CBio...22..302S }}{{Cite web |title=The Doves - National Association of White Dove Release Professionals |url=http://www.whitedovereleaseprofessionals.co.uk/the-doves |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=www.whitedovereleaseprofessionals.co.uk}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/07/16/where-do-doves-released-at-weddings-go-they-usually-live-happily-ever-after/|title=Where do doves released after weddings go.|last=|first=|date=|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=}}

Barbary doves (Streptopelia risoria), also known as ringneck doves, carry a mutation that makes them completely white. These white Barbary doves are most commonly used in stage magic acts. White Barbary doves are sometimes released in large public ceremonies as a peace symbol, and at weddings and funerals. However, releases usually use homing pigeons, as Barbary doves lack the homing instinct and will die if released into the wild.

File:White pigeon in Chandigarh.jpg

Albinism or other genetic anomalies that produce an entirely white dove occur very rarely in the wild since an all-white coloration would make these birds stand out in their natural habitats, leaving them highly vulnerable to predators.{{cite web |last1=Borgia |first1=Gregorio |title=Why Birds Attacked the Peace Doves in Rome |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140127-white-peace-doves-attacked-birds-rome-vatican-pope/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190825133729/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140127-white-peace-doves-attacked-birds-rome-vatican-pope/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 25, 2019 |website=National Geographic |date=29 January 2014 |accessdate=27 October 2019}}

Pigeon breeds used for dove release services are chosen for their color and small size, not for their homing abilities or flight speed. Although dove release businesses advertise that their birds will be able to safely return home, released doves are frequently killed in accidents or by predators before they can return home.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/the-sad-truth-about-where-wedding-doves-end-up|title=What Can Really Happen To 'Wedding Doves' After They Fly Away|last=Schweig|first=Sarah|date=2018-12-07|website=The Dodo|access-date=2019-10-27}} Trained white homing pigeons, domesticated forms of the rock dove, stand a better chance of returning home if vigorously trained prior to release by a trainer and within a distance of 600 miles from the loft. Ringneck doves that are released into the wild and survive will likely starve to death.{{cite web |last1=Engber |first1=Daniel |title=When Doves Fly Away |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/08/what-happens-when-doves-get-released.html |website=Slate |date=8 August 2005 |accessdate=27 October 2019}}

File:60th Anniversary of the Incheon Landing-15SEP2010-Photo by SSG Nicholas Salcido-88.jpg, South Korea]]

Increased public awareness about animal cruelty, and the influx of injured or lost release doves in animal shelters is decreasing the demand for release dove services.

{{See also|Doves as symbols}}

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, a flood narrative is present, where the character Utnapishtim sends out a dove in the hope it will find land. However, the dove returns to his ship and he assumes it did not find land.

The release of doves is associated with the Genesis flood narrative; where a dove is sent out three times as the flood waters are receding.{{cite web |last1=Willette |first1=Dorothy |title=The Enduring Symbolism of Doves |url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/the-enduring-symbolism-of-doves/ |website=Biblical Archeology Society |accessdate=27 October 2019}}

The ritual of releasing doves in the Olympic games originated in 1896.{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Simon |title=The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Sport |date=2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1472905390 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMhiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 |accessdate=27 October 2019}} The doves in the 1896 Olympics were released as part of the closing ceremony; the ritual became an official part of the opening ceremony in the 1920 Antwerp games. The ritual was altered to be purely symbolic after several of the doves released in the 1988 Seoul Olympics landed on the Olympic Torch and were burnt alive when it was lit.{{cite web |last1=Herald |first1=Deccan |title=When messengers of peace were burnt alive |url=http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug132004/oly5.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040829084509/http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug132004/oly5.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 August 2004 |website=Olympics 2004 |accessdate=27 October 2019}} At the Olympics 2021, in Tokyo, a thousand paper doves were used instead of real birds.{{Cite web |last=Pigeonpedia |title=Dove Releases: Are They Cruel? Is It Ethical? |url=https://pigeonpedia.com/dove-releases/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Pigeonpedia |language=en-us}}

In 2004, Pope John Paul II released doves, with children, to promote Christian unity and world peace.{{Cite web |last=CNA |title=Pope again calls for Christian Unity, releases doves for peace |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/523/pope-again-calls-for-christian-unity-releases-doves-for-peace |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Catholic News Agency |language=en}}

In 2005, Pope John Paul II started a yearly January tradition of children releasing doves from a window to promote world peace.{{Cite web |last1=America |first1=Because without |last2=World |first2=There Is No Free |title=Vatican Doves Attacked by Seagull Happened Same Time Last Year |url=https://canadafreepress.com/article/vatican-doves-attacked-by-seagull-happened-same-time-last-year |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Canada Free Press |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=D'emilio |first1=Frances |title=Pro-animal rights groups appeal to pope after dove attack |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pro-animal-groups-appeal-to-pope-over-dove-attack |website=The Washington Examiner |date=27 January 2014 |accessdate=27 October 2019}} The practice was problematic due to the birds not flying away and returning to the window 2005, 2012. At some releases the doves were attacked by other birds, a seagull in 2013,{{Cite magazine |last=Pollak |first=Sorcha |date=2013-01-29 |title=Pope's Dove of Peace Attacked by Seagull of Irony |language=en-US |magazine=Time |url=https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/29/popes-dove-of-peace-attacked-by-seagull-of-irony/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |issn=0040-781X}} and a seagull and a crow in 2014.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= 26 January 2014|title=Pope's peace doves attacked by crow and seagull |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/26/pope-doves-attacked-by-crow-seagull-st-peters-square |access-date= |website=The Guardian}}{{Cite web |date=2014-01-31 |title=Fact or Fiction? Pope Francis's peace doves attacked by birds of prey story |url=https://www.imediaethics.org/fact-or-fiction-popes-peace-doves-attacked-by-birds-of-prey-story/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=iMediaEthics |language=en}}

In December 2013, at an event where Pope Benedict XVI released doves during a Holocaust remembrance event the birds were attacked by a seagull.{{Cite web |last=Chandler |first=Adam |date= 26 January 2014|title=The Recent and Troubled History of Papal Peace Doves |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/recent-and-troubled-history-papal-peace-doves/357387/ |access-date= |website=The Atlantic}}{{Cite web |date=2013-01-29 |title=Look: Seagull Attacks Dove Of Peace Released By Pope |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/popes-dove-attacked-by-seagull-peace_n_2574054 |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=HuffPost UK |language=en}}

Since 2015, The Vatican no longer engages in the releasing doves due to the problems of birds not flying away and being attacked by other birds. The notoriety of this event generated a public outcry for the Vatican to halt this practice. A balloon release has been used instead in 2015{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/26/how-killer-birds-forced-pope-francis-to-change-a-vatican-tradition-releasing-doves-for-peace/|title=How killer birds forced Pope Francis to change a Vatican tradition: Releasing doves for peace|last=Bever|first=Lindsey|date=|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en|access-date=2018-07-23}} and 2018.{{Cite news |date=2018-01-28 |title=Youth of Catholic action pray for peace at Sunday Angelus |language=en |work=Vatican News |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-01/pope-angelus-catholic-action.html |access-date=2022-06-11}}

• Balloon release
• Sky lantern

{{reflist}}

{{Commons|Columba livia}}

• [http://dove-release.net/ Professional White Dove Release Association - US, Canada, Great Britain]
• [http://www.npausa.com/ National Pigeon Association (USA)]
• [http://www.pigeon.org/ American Racing Pigeon Union]
• [http://www.ifpigeon.com/ International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers]
• [http://www.zyworld.com/NPA/index.htm National Pigeon Association (Great Britain)]
• [http://www.canadianracingpigeonunion.com/ Canadian Racing Pigeon Union]
• [http://www.pigeonfanciers.ca/ The Canadian Pigeon Fanciers Association]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060713132816/http://www.nwdrs.net/ National White Dove Release Society]}}

{{Pigeons}}

Category:Aviculture

Category:Ceremonies

Category:Domestic pigeons

Category:Introduced birds