A word from John DeCarlo Jr, Candidate for National Pigeon Association President 2016-2017
Let me begin by saying that I appreciate the work my fellow fanciers have done by creating a facebook page about my running for NPA President in the upcoming election.
As many of you know pigeons are deeply rooted in my family. I have served on the NPA Board in different capacities for 4 terms, in fact I have been on committees until now. I breed many different breeds of pigeons and have served as an officer of several specialty clubs.
I feel that the NPA is doing well with the increased membership and I commend the entire board on the work and promotion they have done to see this great bump in membership. We need to keep growing and also give the members reason to rejoin. This can only be done by offering programs and incentives that encourage fanciers to be a part of the NPA and contribute.
Here are a few things that I intend to improve or keep going in the right direction in no particular order.
1. I feel the NPA should own its own cages, tables and legs. This would give all breed clubs all over the US the means to hold the NPA Grand National. In recent years we have been fortunate with able clubs putting in bids for the show. This has not and will not always be the case but if a group of fanciers in a part of the country wish to hold a National at least the cages will be available.
I have looked into this before and have found a place in the center of the country that will store a semi trailer with all of the necessary materials to hold a show. If we do not act upon this soon we will run out of venues for our annual show and convention
2. I am currently working with the head vet, Dr. Katherine Starzel, USDA at the port of San Francisco to come up with a blueprint for pigeon breeders to privately quarantine incoming birds. She is very interested in seeing this happen and is enthusiastically working with me on this. Now for many this does not mean anything if you do not care to import birds from other countries, but many breeders would like to do so but it is cost prohibitive and time consuming. My neighbor is the President of a large Chinchilla club and they travel with their animals to shows without any problem. Their club has a deal with Delta Airlines and Delta is their exclusive carrier. They still take them as excess baggage as we did for many years. I believe we should also attempt to strike a deal with Delta as they have done.
In Napa California one of the most renowned Avian Veterinarians has an office, Dr. Mark Bland, DVM. Dr Bland is the vet for the Squab breeders association in Central California, the biggest in the country and is also one of the first people called in Biosecurity emergencies involving poultry. I have been fortunate enough to work with Dr. Bland on a few things in the past and he has an immense amount of information that shows a direct distinction between pigeons and chickens as far as disease. This is where the above is tied together.
We need to show the USDA, FDA, APHIS and the other government organizations that pigeons are not poultry and are not genetically tied together other than having two wings and a beak. The reason I mention this is the current bird flu outbreaks all over our country. The pigeon show season is currently in doubt in some of the highly affected areas. This disease affects poultry and not pigeons. There is testing to prove this that has been done by the Squab breeders. This would also help us in transporting our birds on the airlines because currently we are classified as poultry. Our birds need to be classified as what they are, pigeons.
This alone would be a huge breakthrough for the hobby and it is possible with some education and some legwork and I plan to work hard on pigeons getting reclassified
3. The NPA currently supports the American Pigeon Museum and Library yearly with a portion of the band sales. This is great but we have not done anything with the room we are given for this unmatched support, we need to promote the NPA here better, they want us too, but nothing has been done.
4. The Legacy Fund is something that has been in place for a few years now and is a great program for the NPA, many clubs and individuals donated upon its inception but last year the NPA had to donate funds to it, this should not happen, this is not why it was created. It was created to pay for special promotional projects or other important endeavors the NPA sees fit.
These are a few ideas and plans I have for the NPA if I am elected. I will admit, I am not a very good politician and am not on social media, but if elected I will lead by example and ensure you, the members, that you will receive the service from the National Office you deserve. I run a company of over 40 employees and deal with the public on a daily basis, I have been with my company for over 17 years, since High School, and I have learned the necessary ways of running a business and I intend to use this experience if elected as the President of the NPA.
I urge you to participate in the upcoming election and ask for your vote.
John
