Urban Renewal Authority to Clip Last Racing Pigeon Shop’s Wings?
After the Urban Renewal Authority ordered the eviction of Hong Kong’s last racing-pigeon store, a group of about 10 residents and shopkeepers are taking action.
Another big development project is taking a toll on local business owners, but this time it has affected a very special shop: Hong Kong’s last remaining racing-pigeon store. Unlike ordinary pigeons, racing pigeons are trained to fly long distances (quickly, we assume) and remember their way home.
Shopkeepers on Yan Shue Lane were ordered to clear out by September 30 to make way for the Kwun Tong redevelopment project, but residents are protesting the order alongside Eric Leung Kam-hung, owner of Kok Chai Bird Store and the last person in Hong Kong to still sell racing pigeons. In an effort to raise awareness about Leung’s plight, about 10 residents and shopkeepers erected an iron bird statue and launched the “Let the Pigeons Fly” social media campaign last week.
The Urban Renewal Authority offered a new site to Leung in Mong Kok’s Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. However, according to Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s Senior Information Officer Herman Fong, the authority can only issue him a license to sell ornamental birds—not racing pigeons.
The department wrote in the Legislative Council this April that the keeping of racing pigeons is banned, because “racing pigeons need to take frequent flying exercise and are susceptible to contact with wild birds.” Mr Leung was exempted as he’s been keeping the pigeons before the ban, but the impending move changes his status. “It’s up to Mr Leung whether he takes up the offer,” Fong says.
Leung’s pigeons are imported from Europe, each with a birth certificate detailing its family tree and health status. “I’ve been selling pigeons for more than 30 years, and now the industry is coming to an end,” Leung tells Apple Daily. “I am very sad. I have nothing now.”
According to Leung, the authority has threatened to come at any minute to shut down the business. Not only will the longstanding racing-pigeon trade come to an end in Hong Kong, but Leung says the new shop site’s rent would cost $2,000 more a month than his current location.