QCOSTARICA – Nervous, without an appetite and minor burns is the condition of the pigeon allegedly used to deliver illegal drugs into the La Reforma prison.
The pigeon, discovered on Wednesday by officials at the La Reforma prison, is now in the care of experts in the clinic of the Zooave animal rescue centre in Alajuela, later moved to an enclosure where it will spend the rest of its days.
Aleyda Mendez Hernandez, in charge of the animal rescue centre, said the pigeon cannot be released, one of the main reasons is that it is accustomed to being fed by a person and no one knows who he or she is.
“We have it under observation. We do not see any problems. It has not eaten anything, but that is a matter of time, it is a little nervous given all that has happened and has minor burns, caused by the pouch,” said the expert.
The pigeon was found near one of the medium security blcoks, carrying 14 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of marijuana in the specially made pouch.
It is believed the bird was being used for making a delivery to the prison or perhaps in an area near the prison, but got tired and landed in the prison block.
Homing pigeons (Columba livia) are easy to train. Although they cannot be trained to fly to a specific location, they have an innate ability to find their way home. Good food, comfortable lodgings and being treated like royalty is what makes your pigeons want to come back. In addition to training pigeons to return home loft, they can be train them to fly between two locations.
