On the morning of September 3, a military parade was held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and at the end of the ceremony, 80,000 doves were released to enhance the atmosphere of the day. However, due to the hot weather, many doves seemed to suffer from heatstroke as they lay on the square after participating in the parade.
According to the official media CCTV News, the doves participating in the military parade came from over 3,000 households of Beijing residents who raised homing pigeons. In order to create a spectacular effect for the release, six dove cage vehicles were parked on the east and west sides of the square. The vehicles on the eastern side carried doves collected from the western part of Beijing, while those on the western side carried doves from the eastern part of Beijing. It is said that this arrangement was made to create a swirling effect after the doves converged. At the same time, “it can prolong the doves’ dwell time in the air and extend people’s joy,” said Hou Pengcheng, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Sports Federation.
It was reported that for this military parade, on the afternoon of the 2nd, pigeon enthusiasts delivered their beloved doves to 10 designated pigeon transfer points within Beijing.
However, according to a report by Hong Kong’s “Ming Pao,” the perceived temperature in Beijing exceeded 35℃ that day, causing reporters’ phones to overheat and crash several times. After the military parade ended, reporters saw many doves flying down on the square, lying on the ground with their mouths open, gasping for air, showing signs of heatstroke. Passersby looked on with pity and began offering water and bread crumbs to the doves.
According to internet users, among the 80,000 doves released, not all were from Beijing, but also from Hebei and Tianjin. A netizen from Hebei mentioned, “Only one of mine came back, just 100 kilometers away, very worried.” “Do our doves from Hebei only come back on weekends?”
Another netizen shared a video showing a dove, suspected to have participated in the military parade, falling into the river while fishing. The dove was identified by its code “2175462.” According to the netizen’s comment on the video, the pigeon owner with this code is from Shenyang, with a leg ring code of 06-2024-0040322, and the pigeon had previously ranked fifth in the 2024 Autumn 7-City Pigeon Racing Championship with an average speed of 1100 meters per minute.
The video showed the netizen fishing the dove out of the river. The netizen mentioned that the dove’s wing was injured, preventing it from returning home. They planned to contact the owner through the code and return the dove to its rightful owner.
In another video, the injured pigeon was seen dragging its wounded leg back home, limping its way into the dove cage.
In response to this, a staff member of the Beijing Pigeon Association told Daxiang News, “The doves have been in cages for a bit too long, and with the slight heat in the morning, they may have become dehydrated or experienced some stress response when they come out feeling a bit confused. It will be fine once they recover.”
Netizens expressed various opinions, “Those who can’t go home are lost, how can they return on their own.” “They look tired, so heartbreaking!” “No, it’s making me cry! Can’t we choose doves closer to home, it’s too distressing!” “Only those who have raised pigeons can understand the feelings of pigeon enthusiasts.” “I always thought the released doves were raised by the nation, not from private individuals.” “Pigeon: I fly, I fly, I fly with all my might, if I don’t get home soon, I will have low blood sugar.”