You probably remember that towards the end of last year we brought you news of a few pigeons in Las Vegas that had been found with cowboy hats glued to their heads and whilst we all thought it was cute at first, when we actually thought about it we soon became a lot more concerned as it emerged that these hats could have seriously harmed the little guys.

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Our worst fears have now been confirmed after an Instagram post from Lofty Hopes Pigeon Rescue, who took in the three pigeons that were found with the hats and named them Billie The Pidgin, Coolamity Jane and Cluck Norris, as they’ve now sadly announced that Billie has passed away due to complications from having the hat stuck on his head:

 

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The staff and volunteers at Lofty Hopes are saddened to report that Billie The Pidge, one of the Cowboy Pigeons in the red hats, has passed away of an undectected illness. The hat could have interfered with her being able to dislodge small insects from under it, and pigeons are very active preeners (groomers), not just for themselves, but for the others in their flocks. The fumes of the glue coukd have slowly poisoned her. Pigeons have a very fragile respiratory system. So many things could have gone wrong. From the time we spotted and captured her she didn’t have the same wild fight in her. She was a pretty easy capture. She had string foot embedded into the skin. Surely this was an issue when she was trapped and had a hat cruelly glued to her head, but her captor, instead of helping her, released her not caring that she would lose more of her toes. We are truly saddened by her loss and will always remember her struggle. Please know, that our efforts to find the remaining “Cowboy Pigeon” continues. Thank you for caring. #Loftyhopes #pigeonpositivemovement #pigeongate #pigeonrehab #pigsofinstagram #pigeonlivesmatter #cowboypigeons #Billiethepidge #pigeonrescue

A post shared by Lofty Hopes – Pigeon Positive (@loftyhopespigeonpositive) on Jan 12, 2020 at 6:55pm PST

Tragic. Hopefully the other two pigeons won’t share a similar fate and the guys will be able to find the last pigeon whose still roaming free before anything happens to them as well. Hoping that the culprit will be brought to justice at some point too, but I think the chances of that going down is less and less likely with the amount of time that’s passed.

For more of the same, check out this pigeon pooping on someone being interviewed about the pigeon pooping problem. Damn.