New regulations and the drawing power of megaresorts are making Las Vegas a haven for high stakes races over hundreds of miles of desert for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It also means that hundreds of pigeons could soon be flapping their way into a back yard near you.
"Everybody likes to come to Las Vegas, and guys who are into pigeon racing can come here, and their wives have something to do downtown," said Mike Burbank, a Las Vegas resident who runs one of four major pigeon races in Clark County. "It's something that's going to continue to grow."
While pigeon enthusiasts are excited to see their hobby grow and the opportunity to combine a Las Vegas vacation with a race, some rural homeowners say flocks of pigeons don't belong in neighborhoods.
The Las Vegas City Council believes they do, however. Earlier this month the City Council passed a new regulation allowing homeowners in ranch estates and ranch acres zoned areas to keep up to 300 racing pigeons. Clark County allows only 20 pigeons per lot in rural residential areas. Any more requires a special use permit.
Although the city passed its new ordinance without a protest from residents, council members should expect to see a lot of unhappy neighbors in the future, said Roy Morris, a Clark County resident who had to hire a lawyer to get a neighbor's pigeon loft torn down earlier this year.
"People in the city don't know what they're in for," Morris said. "There are bug problems because of all the fecal matter, and the pigeons attract other birds to the neighborhood.
"It took us three years to get rid of the problem, and we still have extra birds in the neighborhood."
Pigeon racers, like Rick Phalen, who organizes the Vegas Classic Race scheduled for November, say that pigeons are not a neighborhood menace when they receive proper care.
"Sure there are instances where people don't control their birds," Phalen said. "If they fly loose and aren't taken care of, it makes bums out of the pigeons."
Responsible pigeon owners let their pigeons out only for a couple hours in the morning to exercise, then return them to their loft, Phalen said.
"They don't land on other people's roofs, they go out and fly and then they come right back to the loft," said Phalen, who cares for the birds at a loft behind co-race organizer Ed Sittner's home in unincorporated Enterprise Township. "The loft is the only place they want to be.
"We have to get people past the idea that these are nasty, dirty, flying rats. Once people hear the facts about the birds and the hobby, they usually come around."
The finish line for the 330-mile Vegas Classic is a strip of airport-owned desert next to Sittner's loft in a rural residential area near Blue Diamond Road and Arville Street.
Racers from across the country ship their birds to Phalen and Sittner in the spring so that they identify the Enterprise loft as home. The pigeon owners then congregate for the one-day race and wait to see which bird returns first.
For $1,500 four pigeons can be housed at the loft and entered into the race. Each of the birds, which can cost up to $2,000, is fitted with a band on its leg that contains a computer chip, which records which pigeon crosses the finish line first. First place in the 600 bird race nets a $300,000 prize.
Phalen and Sittner will apply to the Clark County Planning Commission Thursday for a special use permit to hold their race in November.
"There is really no standard pigeon ordinance out there," Phalen said. "Uniformity doesn't exist when you're talking about specialty animals like Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs or racing pigeons."
Phoenix ordinances allow only 20 birds per half acre, while the city of Denver requires residents to get a permit to house any livestock or fowl.
Lack of permits was what eventually led to the dismantling of the pigeon loft next door to Roy Morris' home near Warm Springs Road and Interstate 15.
The loft was 128 feet long and 32 feet wide and was the home base of the Vegas Race, a 600-bird race held in January with a first prize of $250,000. Suvit Asawapornsnit, organizer of the Vegas Race, was fined $500 for running the race without the proper permits.
Asawapornsnit has since moved his loft and his race to Pahrump. Asawapornsnit was also investigated by Nevada Gaming Control agents after allegations surfaced that he was taking bets on the birds, but no charges were filed against him.
"We let him know that his operation couldn't be involved in any organized gambling on the race," Keith Copher, chief of enforcement for state gaming control, said.
Burbank, who runs the Vegas Connection race, said that what Asawapornsnit went through was not lost on other race organizers.
"Nobody really knew that we needed the permits, but now we know," said Burbank, whose loft is in the northeast part of the Las Vegas Valley.
Phalen and Sittner are proactive, making sure they talk to neighbors about the Vegas Classic and the loft. Heidi Haustein, who live a few hundred feet from the loft, said she has had no problems with the pigeons.
"We all moved out here so that we could have space to do what we want," said Haustein, who keeps horses on her property. "There's never a problem with the birds flying over my house. It's like a professional operation over there."
The business-like atmosphere that Haustein admires is a cause of concern for Carolyn Ellsworth, a neighbor that lives south of the loft.
"I'm concerned because I don't want to see a business run in a residential neighborhood," Ellsworth said. "People keep wanting to change zoning requirements and it lowers the property values.
"I don't have anything against pigeon racing, but it needs to be held in the right place."
Ellsworth said her main concern is that she can see the loft from her property, and she is working with Phalen on a compromise that would build a block wall around the loft.
Even with the protests of neighbors like Morris and Ellsworth, the city's 300- pigeon ordinance will make getting into the hobby easier for more people, Burbank said.
"I think when people hear about the new ordinance, we'll see a lot more retirement-age people who are involved in pigeon racing moving out here," Burbank said.
Officials with the American Racing Pigeon Union, a national organization that represents more than 600 clubs and 10,000 members, say that the sport is growing slowly about 4 percent a year.
"It's most popular on the East and West Coasts, but we're seeing it start to fill in," said Deone Roberts, sport development manager, for the pigeon union. "There is always compromise involved with zoning issues, but we try to bring education to the table, so people can see what the sport is really about."
Phalen says that while the sport may be growing, he doesn't expect to see hundreds of new lofts going up in rural areas of the city or county.
"It's becoming a little more professional, and maybe moving more from the back alley to the front of the street, but we don't kid ourselves," Phalen said. "We just want to be able to put on a race that lets pigeon people have the chance to get together and race for a pretty good purse."
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