'I can't think of one thing' Pigeon King did wrong: former employee

Sunday, November 17, 2013

by DAVE PINK

A former employee of Pigeon King International testified Monday that she “can’t think of one thing” her boss did that was wrong when he was running the now-defunct Waterloo bird breeding business.

Bridgette Farrer told a Kitchener court that she was hired by Arlan Galbraith to do typing and office work in September 2006, and she stayed with the company until its bankruptcy on June 17, 2008. Her former boss is fighting a charge that he defrauded investors in his pigeon-breeding business of millions of dollars. He’s also facing four charges under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, with regards to the company’s failure. Galbraith is representing himself in the complex trial.

During cross-examination, Galbraith asked, “Do you know of any specific wrongdoing I have done?”

Farrer responded, “I can’t think of one thing.”

Pigeon King’s business was selling breeding pairs of pigeons to breeders – most of them farmers – and buying back the offspring at set prices. Those birds were supposedly to have been sold to pigeon enthusiasts and hobbyists around the world.

While Farrer “prettied up” the company’s Pigeon Post newsletters and the manuals issued to breeders and prospective breeders, she says Galbraith had total control over the publications. Farrer said she made mailing labels for about 800 breeders and 30 or 40 others that Galbraith wanted to receive the newsletter.

A “book of referrals” compiled to counter what Galbraith called “a smear campaign” against the company, was his idea, Farrer said.

Farrer said she first become concerned about the business after media reports questioned Galbraith’s business practices. “I asked, ‘Why aren’t you out there fighting for your company?’ ” she said. “He said, ‘It will all go away.’”

Still, Farrer said she was shocked when she got an e-mail telling her the business had gone bankrupt. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading . . . .  I was angry,” she said. “It didn’t make any sense to me.”

The trial, before Justice G. E. Taylor, continues Tuesday, and could last another four to six weeks. BF