A scam that ensnared many Wellington County residents in the early 2000s is the subject of a play premiering at the Blyth Festival next summer.
The Pigeon King, based on the story of Arlan Galbraith and his company Pigeon King International, will be staged at the festival from Aug. 9 to Sept. 25.
A Nov. 25 press release announcing the 2017 lineup states, “When Arlan Galbraith created his company, Pigeon King International, he boasted some 50-years as a top breeder; he was a prominent member of the Canadian Racing Pigeon Union, the Canadian National Tippler Union, the National Birmingham Roller Club, and even the charter president of the Saugeen Valley Fur and Feathers Fanciers Association.”
But around 2001, Galbraith began approaching local farmers and neighbours asking them to invest in a piece of the action. Claiming to have access to lucrative markets throughout the Middle East, the “pigeon king” began to sign contracts with guaranteed profits for buyers of his breeding pairs.
Over the next seven years, Pigeon King International became a massive empire, worth tens of millions of dollars, with farmers investing from both sides of the border, mortgaging century farms, and hatching hundreds of thousands of birds, only to collapse in a bankruptcy filing of epic proportions.
Finally convicted of fraud in a Waterloo court, Galbraith was sentenced to seven years for the scheme.
“The Pigeon King is a country parable for our times, reminding us that what takes flight, always comes home to roost,” festival officials state.
