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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1978)
By JOCK HATFIELD Of the Emerald Saturday evening two organizations held conventions at the fairgrounds, the National Evangelical Team, and the Northwest Pigeon breeders. While the evangelists preached of the perfect man, across the street breeders preached their own religion: pigeon. They preached of the pacific Jacobin, the tumbler, the African, the English Trumpetor, the Norwitch cropper, and the value of vitamin E, of natural selection and color and feather size, of sunflower seeds and hemp and flax. Eight hundred pigeons sat around the building in various states of evolution, cocking their heads and looking sur prised. They stood as the product of eight hundred years of selective breeding. Dozens of breeds all mutated by man from a single breed. It had taken 800 years to change the original wild Rock Pigeon into various kinds of feather dusters, cripples, gargantuans and feathered cantelopes. Photo* by Patrick St Mutant pigeons delight fans Pigeon connoisseurs gathered at the Lane County Fair grounds Sunday to show off their favorite freakish birds. The superpigeon award went to a feathery fellow who does backward somersaults when he tries to fly. These experiments have feathers sticking out of their heads, and lumps coming out of their necks. Some can’t fly. Others can’t move. In the wild these breeds would have been cancelled because of low ratings. But pigeon lovers over the years have managed to pre serve the Rock Pigeon’s creative genetic efforts with care ful help and care and feeding. Here at the pigeon show the mutants receive prizes for their lumps. Glen Julien, head of the local pigeon chapter, has done his part for the pigeon effort. His breed, the English Trumpeter, has strange things coming out of its legs. Left alone it falls over itself. But in a small cage, with support beams, it survives admirably. “They have to be kept in a small cage, and cleaned regularly," he says. Julien started pigeon raising when was little, some thirty years ago. He trapped pigeons in a barn and started breeding them. Now each of his sons has his own breed to mutate. In the evening, after work, Julien heads out to the coop to commune with his pigeons. He replenishes water, mixes grain and itinerizes body parts. “It’s soothing to go out after 1 work,” he says. “I enjoy breeding colors or mixing birds to see what comes out.” Glen Reeder, another dub member, admires the pigeon for its personality as well as its mutations. "Pigeons are like people," he says. "They stay mated for life usually. But just like people a cock will go after any hen that comes along and a hen will go after any cock." The dub awarded prizes in two classes, Champion sporting and Champion show. Champion of show needs the corred amount of bumps and bulges and feathers for its breed, but it needn’t move. Champion sporting, however, must perform the crippled movements as sod at ed with its breed. Partor rollers, for example, are judged on how well they roll across the ground. The show conducted Sunday with the selection of a super bird, a pigeon who does its particular brand of de viancy particularly well. The award went to a man who has over the last 14 years spent approximately $14,000 on his pigeons. The winning pigeon was a particularly well done Roller, a super pigeon which does backward summersaults when it tries to fly. Semitism still issue in France PARIS (AP) — An unrepentant French Nazi collaborator who claimed "only lice were gassed at Auschwitz" has sparked a na tional furor over anti-Semitism reminiscent of last century's Dreyfus affair. The remarks were made by 80-year-oid Louis DarquierdePel lepoix, who was commissioner for Jewish affairs in France’s war time Vichy government, in an in terview published Oct. 29 in L'Express magazine. In the interview, Darquier, who lives in exile in Spain, said the Jews had plotted to control the world, making Jerusalem the capi tal. At one point, he denied that the ■ i .. Nazis had exterminated 6 million Jews. "This figure is an invention, pure and simple-an invention of the Jews, of course,” he said. "The Jews are like that: they’re ready to do anything for publicity. ” He denied charges that he sent 75,000 Jews to Germany, and he said the Germans used gas chambers only to delouse people before internment. Giscard d'Estaing issued a statement saying freedom of the press should include respect for "truth and decency." L'Express, in its issue released Sunday, defended publishing the interview, saying: "Far from mak l J J J CHINA BLUE RESTAURANT WATER CHESNUT WITH PEAPODS A dish rich in color, flavor and taste $3.95 China Blue Hou” 879 E. 13th Avc. 343-2832 Mon. -Thurs. 11 to 10 Fri 11 to 11 Sat. 5 to 11 Sun. 5 to 10 ing racism indecently commonp lace, this document, on the con trary, shows that it is, like all to talitarianism, a permanent danger." On Friday, government pro secutors began assembling in formation to see whether there is a case against Danquier for glorify ing war crimes and inciting racial hatred. OVER ONE MILLION MILES A DAY ARE RUN IN NIKE SHOES Come in and we’ll tell you why_ jT-LETIC department) Id a Olhn m*v —^ Monday Saturday 1M ie atrimu BMf. *• ■*• ***nf■••, Pkea* 342-5155 Oregon Wilderness Supplies Celebrate the Fall Colors With Powderhom Mountaineering, the color folk. 20% off Powderhorn Windriver mountain parkas, anoraks, down vests, dacron and down parkas. 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