RANST, Belgium — Belgium’s once pastoral pastime of pigeon racing has come to this: Drones swoop over lofts where valuable birds are housed to look for security weaknesses, laser sensors set off alarms at night and cameras linked live to mobile apps keep potential thieves at bay — 24/7.
That’s what happens when the fast-flying fowl — which in a bygone era were, at best, the toast of local bars — have turned into valuable commodities. The most expensive bird to come out of the top pigeon-racing nation in the world fetched 1.6 million euros ($1.65 million) a few years ago.
No wonder the sport is grappling with an unprecedented wave of unsolved pigeon pilfering that has hit several of the best birds in the business.
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