Leung Kam-hung: Pigeon aficionado

HK Magazine: What made you decide to open up a racing-pigeon shop right in the middle of the city?
Leung Kam-hung: It’s not just a pigeon shop; it was originally a bird shop, founded by my father. When I took it over, I moved my pigeons into the shop, and gradually it became my main business. I don’t keep all my birds here. I actually have a pigeon farm on the mainland. Almost all the pigeon breeders have moved up north.

HK: What got you interested in pigeons in the first place?
LK: When I was in grade 4 in primary school, my family bought a plot of land in the New Territories. We started to keep live animals there, including pigeons of course. I would take my favorites and start raising them as pets, and if I saw a pretty pigeon in the wet market, I’d buy it and take it home as well. I didn’t learn about racing pigeons until I got in touch with the Hong Kong Racing Pigeon Association in the 80s. Then I went on a trip to Taiwan and realized that the type of pigeons you raise for racing are different to the kind you find in the market.

HK: How does pigeon racing work?
LK: Racers take their pigeons to a certain destination, set them free and see which one returns to the coop first. The birds all have a ring on their legs with a bar code, and there’s a scanner at the cage door, which is like a finishing line for them. The pigeons will race in one of three distance categories: 300, 500 and 600-700 kilometers, But in Europe, pigeons will fly as far as 1,050 kilometers. There’s not that many racing events in Hong Kong, probably because you’re not allowed to bet on pigeon racing, and it doesn’t count as a sporting event.

HK: How do you train the birds?
LK: We raise them from chicks in a very cozy and stable environment. We keep their feeding on a clockwork schedule to make sure they’re comfortable. And then depending on the maturity of the bird, we start taking them away and releasing them, starting at 5 kilometers, and then we gradually increase the distance. I once sent a pigeon to Shanghai and it flew back to Hong Kong the next day. But for competitions, the bird can only fly once in its life, because most competitions will only accept 8-month-old pigeons. Before the contest, they have to live in release areas for around five months to get familiar with the place.

HK: Where do you buy racing pigeons, and how much do they cost?
LK: I buy them from the Netherlands, where they have the world’s top breeds. I’m a regular so I can bargain a winning pigeon down to about $40,000-$50,000. But for other buyers, it might cost between $70,000 and $80,000.

HK: Are you afraid of avian flu?
LK: I’ve been dealing with pigeon shit all my life so I’m sure I have strong antibodies to bird-related diseases. But I believe you can’t simply isolate yourself from everything that you’re afraid of, because that will just make you weaker. What’s the government going to do, put up a dome-shaped net over Hong Kong to keep all the birds from entering?