Advertisements and social media posts from the marijuana retailer The Travel Agency have been promoting the launch of “Project Pigeon,” which the business said would involve a fleet of 20 birds trained to fly cannabis to adults in Manhattan and Brooklyn beginning next year.
In a press release last week, the company said it completed a successful test trial with pigeons adorned with mini-backpacks. The announcement said the birds would be able to carry up to one gram of marijuana per delivery.“As The Travel Agency, it’s only natural we’d explore all modalities of travel for our delivery service, even pigeons,” Arana Hankin-Biggers, co-founder of The Travel Agency, said. “And being in NYC, we thought there’s no better courier than the ever-present and beloved pigeon.”
But while outlets from Fox 5 New York to Time Out ran with the story, the retailer has since confirmed that the pigeon program was simply a marketing stunt—and, evidently, a convincing one to some, as The New York Post first reported. A PR rep for The Travel Agency confirmed with Marijuana Moment on Wednesday that the pigeon campaign wasn’t real.
News about the made-up initiative even received pushback from certain animal rights activists such as Megan Walton from the Pigeons for Miles avian sanctuary. She said that, even though it ended up being a gimmick, “it’s still very upsetting to even conceptualize a campaign like this, centering on exploiting pigeons.”
The press release about the test trial last week said that the “Cannabis Carrier Pigeon Program is not about putting birds to work; it’s about reimagining delivery with a very New York sense of ingenuity.”
“By enlisting the city’s most iconic residents as couriers, The Travel Agency has created what might be New York’s smartest delivery system yet—using what the city already has in abundance to outfly traffic, cut through congestion, and get orders where they need to go,” it said.
Part of the giveaway that the pigeon campaign was made up goes back to state and local laws on cannabis deliveries, which lay out specific safety and anti-diversion rules that licensed businesses must follow to make those deliveries. That includes ID verification upon receipt of cannabis products, which a pigeon ostensibly would not be capable of performing.
But in any case, the stunt is an example of the normalization of the adult-use marijuana market in New York, which has seen over $2 billion in cannabis sales since it launched. And $1 billion of those purchases have been made in 2025 alone, state officials recently touted.
“As The Travel Agency, it’s only natural we’d explore all modalities of travel for our delivery service, even pigeons,” Arana Hankin-Biggers, co-founder of The Travel Agency, said. “And being in NYC, we thought there’s no better courier than the ever-present and beloved pigeon.”
But while outlets from Fox 5 New York to Time Out ran with the story, the retailer has since confirmed that the pigeon program was simply a marketing stunt—and, evidently, a convincing one to some, as The New York Post first reported. A PR rep for The Travel Agency confirmed with Marijuana Moment on Wednesday that the pigeon campaign wasn’t real.
News about the made-up initiative even received pushback from certain animal rights activists such as Megan Walton from the Pigeons for Miles avian sanctuary. She said that, even though it ended up being a gimmick, “it’s still very upsetting to even conceptualize a campaign like this, centering on exploiting pigeons.”
The press release about the test trial last week said that the “Cannabis Carrier Pigeon Program is not about putting birds to work; it’s about reimagining delivery with a very New York sense of ingenuity.”
“By enlisting the city’s most iconic residents as couriers, The Travel Agency has created what might be New York’s smartest delivery system yet—using what the city already has in abundance to outfly traffic, cut through congestion, and get orders where they need to go,” it said.
Part of the giveaway that the pigeon campaign was made up goes back to state and local laws on cannabis deliveries, which lay out specific safety and anti-diversion rules that licensed businesses must follow to make those deliveries. That includes ID verification upon receipt of cannabis products, which a pigeon ostensibly would not be capable of performing.
But in any case, the stunt is an example of the normalization of the adult-use marijuana market in New York, which has seen over $2 billion in cannabis sales since it launched. And $1 billion of those purchases have been made in 2025 alone, state officials recently touted.
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