Behind the Lines - December 2007

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

It began with a request from a reader: "If this is a scam, I ask you to please help to expose it for what it is. And if it is not, please write an article about how to get into the pigeon business in the shortest possible time."

This was by no means a typical Better Farming topic, but we knew that there were a lot of readers with empty buildings who might appreciate learning about a new income opportunity. On the other hand, if things didn't look promising, there might be some lessons to learn.

Although none of our editorial team knew anything about pigeons, our reader had made things easy by pointing us toward Waterloo-based Pigeon King International Inc. (PKI), which has been attracting hundreds of farmer/investors from Ontario, the Prairie provinces and 13 U.S. states. All we had to do, we reasoned, was ask the Pigeon King how things were going and what was behind the apparently sudden increase in demand for pigeons. Then we could call a few of his growers to get a feel for life as a pigeon farmer and obtain an overall industry perspective from government officials, lenders, processors, and perhaps a producer or two from outside the PKI structure.

It seemed like a nice little feature for some future issue of the magazine.

Our plan stalled, but our interest grew, when Arlan Galbraith, who bills himself as the Pigeon King, declined our request for an interview. His website and literature set out the cost to buy into his scheme but made pretty clear that his numbers are private. His salesmen wouldn't tell us much either. But when one mentioned that there were 800 farmers producing pigeons for PKI and another told us that the average number of pairs in his territory was 150 to 300, it was clear pigeon production was taking off. So we got out our calculator. No matter how we worked the numbers, it was clear that tens of millions of dollars were changing hands. And pigeons had suddenly become an important story.

During our research we did learn about the obstacles facing prospective investors seeking information. The RCMP, for example, took a week to return our repeated phone calls. When the communication officer did call back, she couldn't answer basic questions. She referred us to PhoneBusters, a joint RCMP/OPP task force. Average wait time during three calls to reach someone there was 40 minutes. They couldn't answer simple questions either, but each time promised someone with the information would call. No one did.

PhoneBusters' website (http://www.phonebusters.com/english/recognizeit_pyramid.html) does have some advice, however, for people considering a business opportunity: "Find out if there is a demand for the product, or if there are similar products on the market."

We found that the answer, in the case of Pigeon King International Inc. and Arlan Galbraith, is no! BF

Robert Irwin & Don Stoneman