Penguin the Piegon's Surgery Fund

Penguin (Pengy) is a rescued pigeon who has been through the absolute wringer.

She had her foot caught in a ball of human hair - something that occurs surprisingly often - which constricted blood flow to her foot which ultimately made it fall off :(

I managed to catch her at the university campus in Auckland City and brought her home a few weeks ago. She has been an interesting and sweet addition to our flat and we have all fallen in love with her. I took her to the vet to make sure everything is ok with her leg and received the distressing news that unfortunately if she is going to survive she needs to have surgery to remove the dead tissue and bone at the base of her leg where her foot was once attached. Unfortunately for both of us I am a poor student and cannot afford the vet bills to make her procedure as humane and stress/pain free as possible.

I have always sort of thought that city pigeons were 'avian rats' carrying diseases and are unclean and unwanted. That was until I started researching pigeons as companion birds when I found Pengy, and my heart began to soften. Pigeons like Pengy that you'll see in populated areas around the world are the oldest domesticated birds. They live in cities because they can no longer survive without us, but we no longer use them to carry messages and pigeon racing is less common these days. Because they are domesticated they make excellent pets and companion animals... something I have noticed with only having Pengy for a few weeks.