Doves
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
From time immemorial, doves have been seen as symbols of peace and hope. For example, it is a dove in the story of Noah’s Ark that is sent out to seek for dry land, returning with an olive branch.
Sometimes white doves are released at weddings and occasionally at funerals. There are many companies providing dove release services.
Doves are noted for their faithfulness, some species, like the collared dove, mating for life, so they are an apt choice for celebrations like weddings. White doves symbolise purity and innocence and it is a lovely thing to see a flock ascending to the heavens, but what happens to them afterwards?
If fantail doves are used, they perform in a different way. They may be kept on display in cages during the ceremony and taken out to be handed to the happy couple for them to throw them into the air, when they will fly for a short while and then return to the ground. Fantail doves do not fly far and have no homing instinct. Instead, they amble about on the ground and are then taken back home in a carrier.
The doves that are released to fly high are homing pigeons that have been selectively bred to produce white birds. Recently, I have noticed several white pigeons flying over our garden, too swift to be photographed, and wondered where they had come from. Of course, they may be nothing to do with any of the dove release companies in the near vicinity.
However, as in all things, there are disreputable people who do not think beyond the commercial aspects of a venture and may find themselves unable to care for their charges and so release them into the wild to cope as best they can, though I must emphasise this is speculation on my part. I have no way of verifying this. White pigeon-sized birds do not survive long, being preyed upon by hawks and gulls and wily cats.
