They have been called the poor man's racehorse, thoroughbreds of the air and racehorses of the sky.
But those who breed and train racing pigeons often just call them "homers." With a good tail wind, champions can fly up to 70 mph and make a 600-mile trip from the Oregon border to their Orange County homes in a single day.
In Stanton, some are calling homing pigeons a neighborhood nuisance and are urging the city to approve a newly crafted ordinance that would limit their numbers, restrict their flying hours and require owners to get a permit. Complaints center on the "unsightly" appearance of backyard pigeon coops and the noisy release of large numbers of birds.
Homing pigeon enthusiasts worry that their feathered friends could become an endangered species.
"My pigeons are more quiet than dogs," said Marius Nitulescu,a 45-year-old auto body worker who raised racing pigeons in Romania for 25 years before coming to the United States in 1983. His house is filled with trophies. He is a member of the California Flyers Invitational pigeon racing club and keeps about 100 pigeons in specially designed "lofts" in the backyard of his Stanton home. "Maybe they are trying to kill this sport, I don't know."
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Neighbor Lowell Joslin, a retired fireman, has complained about Nitulescu's birds for years. He can see the plywood lofts from his kitchen window across the street.
"How would you like to sit in my kitchen and look at Tijuana every night?" he said. "If everybody put up something like that, imagine what this neighborhood would look like."
Councilman Harry Dotson said the city is just seeking middle ground between pigeon owners--the city has several--and their neighbors. The City Council is scheduled to review the proposed ordinance tonight, with formal adoption recommended for Feb. 25.
"You've got to placate the neighborhood for one thing," Dotson said. "And you've got to let people know they've got to be good neighbors. The city has been considering this for a long time."
Stanton is the latest among several Orange County cities to consider ordinances to regulate homing pigeons.
The proposed ordinance would require anyone with three or more pigeons to obtain a permit. A maximum of 100 pigeons would be allowed, depending on the size of the area where they are kept.
