Suprising steroid use

November 11, 2004 3:02 PM

Athletes... Steroids... blah blah blah.. Only this time it's the pigeons. Poor birds.
posted by Lizc (7 comments total)

"Performance-enhancing drugs can produce roughly the same effects in pigeons as in human athletes. Anabolic steroids build up a pigeon's muscles. Beta-agonists open its respiratory tract and improve breathing. Both can boost a pigeon's endurance. Corticosteroids, which are administered in eye drops, delay a pigeon's molting, enabling it to train harder and race later in the season."
posted by Lizc at 3:03 PM on November 11, 2004

The real question is whether all those steroids can make a pigeon taste any better?

They seem to do wonders for the beef industry.
posted by fenriq at 3:38 PM on November 11, 2004

"It hurt our reputation."

Because pigeon racing is an esteemed, long-honored tradition.

I'm very surprised anabolic steroids work on birds, I would think their overcharged hearts would die. The article indicates that because of their high metabolism doping may not even show up.
posted by geoff. at 4:39 PM on November 11, 2004

"Athletes... Steroids..." ......Altoids? Huh? Huh? Think about it. Why else would people spend 5 bucks on some mints?
posted by nyxxxx at 6:28 PM on November 11, 2004

And they make you "curiously strong"...
posted by kenko at 9:14 AM on November 12, 2004

This is slightly more worrying - perhaps steroids are a gateway drug for these vermin of the air.
posted by longbaugh at 11:00 AM on November 12, 2004

Poor birds indeed. Still, they have it better than fois gras geese and ducks, who are force-fed ungodly amounts of food through a tube directly into their stomachs, forcing their livers to overwork and swell to huge size.

Don't eat fois gras, please. Or race steroid-pumped pigeons.
posted by Shane at 11:10 AM on November 12, 2004