Near the Salt River in Arizona, impossibly blue birds began to appear. Neither exotic parrots nor a new species: they were common pigeons, deliberately dyed.
A couple of influencers hired Sacred Dove Release, a Queen Creek company, to release them as part of their baby’s gender reveal. The plan seemed harmless until Crystal White, of Crystal’s Critter Haven, began rescuing birds she could not restore to their original color. Her concern was not aesthetic: in the brown desert, a bright blue bird becomes easy prey for any predator. “They’re like beacons for predators”, she explained.
Monica Flores, the company’s owner, said she used non-toxic dye and that almost all the birds returned home healthy. But this is not an isolated case: wildlife rescuers in other cities have been reporting dyed birds that were injured or dead after similar events for years. Would you use live animals to announce your baby’s sex?