Hundreds of thousands of pigeons, bred for the cooking pot, will likely have to be destroyed in Ontario, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The massive cull will be a result of what appears to be the bankruptcy of a Waterloo-based company called Pigeon King International.

The company's founder, Arlan Galbraith, declared this week he is filing for bankruptcy.

That will leave hundreds of farmers who bought into his pigeon-breeding scheme with no market for their birds.

"There's going to be a lot of people who are going to lose their farms," said Bill Topp, a former employee of the company.

Topp left the company two years ago over his concerns that the business was unstable, and since then he has been warning people about the company. Topp said he has been inundated with calls telling him the company is bankrupt.

More than 1,000 farmers in Canada and the U.S. invested in the company, typically spending up to $500 for a breeding pair of pigeons.

Pigeon King International promised to buy all offspring back from the farmers at $50 a bird.

Farmers typically paid at least $100,000 to get their breeding business started.

Because of concerns about disease, hundreds of thousands of the birds will have to be euthanized.

As early as last December, Iowa's attorney general, Tom Miller, announced an investigation into the pigeon-breeding company.

"We believe that potential investors/buyers should be very cautious and examine the situation very carefully — especially the question of whether there is a realistic and independent market for pigeons now and in the future," the attorney general's office said in a statement on its website.