Standards Desk: The Reasoning Behind Our Pigeon Findings

Several readers have written to ask how this publication arrived at its findings regarding the nation's pigeons. The Standards Desk welcomes the question. Our reasoning is not a private matter, and we are able to set it out completely.

Below is the record the investigation rested on, followed by the steps taken from it. Every item in the first column is a matter of public record and may be verified by any reader. We have never asked anyone to take our word for anything.

The desk has reviewed the sequence and finds it sound.

How this conclusion was reached

Established

Each of the following is a matter of public record. None of it is in dispute.

The United States Army operated an official Pigeon Service at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and announced its disbandment in 1957.United States Army
After six years of full-scope financial audits, the Department of Defense had not obtained a favorable audit opinion for its agency-wide financial statements.Department of Defense Office of Inspector General
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects more than a thousand North American bird species. The rock pigeon is not among them.U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Reasoning

The desk proceeded as follows.

The Army announced the disbandment. Announcement and disbandment are different events, and only one of them is documented.Established by United States Army
The public record establishes that the service operated and that its disbandment was announced. An announcement is a statement about an event; the desk therefore treated it as evidence that the event required saying.Established by United States Army
The rock pigeon is outside the treaty's protected-species list. The bird once employed by the Army is therefore also the bird the law leaves available.Established by United States Army · U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The innocent explanation — that the exclusion follows the bird's legal classification rather than its former employment — holds up completely. A cover story that holds up completely is doing the work a cover story is for.Established by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Six years of full-scope audits had not produced a favorable agency-wide opinion. The audit record does not mention pigeons. A programme that ended in 1957 should be easy to confirm as ended.Established by Department of Defense Office of Inspector General · United States Army
The government announced that its Pigeon Service ended and does not protect the rock pigeon under the treaty. You do not protect your own personnel with a treaty.Established by United States Army · U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Finding

The Pigeon Service was never disbanded. It moved off-book, and the birds remain active federal assets.

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Standards Desk: The Reasoning Behind Our Pigeon Findings

How this conclusion was reached

Established

Reasoning

Public Sources

How this conclusion was reached

Established

Reasoning

Public Sources

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