Standing With Pigeons Against Mike Tyson

The photo on the cover of PETA's recent Annual Review shows how loving and devoted pigeons are. In fact, they could teach the "Moral Majority" a thing or two: They mate for life, and both parents share in the care and nurturing of their young. It's not their fault that they were stolen from the cliffs where they lived peacefully and plunked down in the U.S. They are symbols of peace, after all.

Pigeons are among the most maligned urban wildlife, and it's hard to understand why anyone can find fault with these beautiful, fascinating birds. People trap them, poison them, and even force them into endurance races so that the humans involved can win prizes and purses-as Mike Tyson will showcase in an upcoming TV program on Animal Planet called Taking on Tyson.

Pigeons are smart and have complex social relationships. Their hearing and vision are both excellent, but they still flock in large numbers to help protect each other from predators. They are completely innocuous and enrich our mornings with their gentle cooing.

Pigeons who are penned up for racing-on rooftops or in backyards coops, as viewers will witness in Taking on Tyson-are deliberately put at risk. Taken hundreds of miles from their pens, the birds often struggle to survive in all weather extremes and often fall prey to both wild predators, such as raptors, and cruel humans who shoot or trap them. I once found a racing pigeon who had crossed the English Channel in a fierce storm, exhausted, no longer able to fly, and almost frozen on the ground. He made it to land from his release point, but others can only have perished, never to see their mates again. And for what? For wagers, that's what, and for trophies. Bets are usually placed on the outcome, which not only violates many state gambling laws but also can mean a grim fate for "losers." Since pride and profit are often the compelling factors in pigeon racing, owners have little use for pigeons who can't or don't win. "Wring his neck" is what people so often hear when they report a starving or injured banded pigeon. So much for love and respect.

PETA has filed a complaint with the district attorney in Brooklyn, where the show Taking on Tyson will be filmed, asserting that Tyson's salary from the show is itself a monetary reward derived from racing animals, which is illegal in New York (with the exception of horse racing).

Pigeons' navigational abilities, which are largely dependent on keen vision and an exceptional memory for topographic details, are legendary. A 10-year study of pigeon flight patterns conducted at Oxford University found that the birds rely more on their knowledge of human transport routes than on their internal magnetic compasses. One behavioral psychologist who studies pigeons remarked, "Pigeons commit new images to memory at lightning speed. ... They organize images of things into the same logical categories that human beings use when we conceptualize."

When not being used in races, pigeons live cooped up, sometimes hundreds in just a few barren cages. Instead of riding the air currents for pleasure or exploring grassy areas for morsels of food, birds are relegated to small wire-mesh worlds that may afford them little protection from the elements. Birds are given plastic eggs, a technique that tricks female birds into believing that they are nurturing an unborn chick, on the theory that a distressed bird will race her heart out, going that much faster to get home to her egg.

There's little doubt that Tyson's show will have a 101 Dalmatians-type effect. Many of the boxer's fans will casually acquire birds and then quickly tire of the idea. Animal Planet will do viewers and pigeons a terrible disservice if it airs this show, as it will sentence countless birds to a life in a cramped cage and ultimately a bad end.

Pigeons bring beauty to our concrete jungles and demand so little in return. They deserve to be left in peace. Please let your thoughts be known. Contact Animal Planet by filling out a form online at http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations or by contacting Melissa Berry, the company's publicity manager, at 240-662-2946 or melissa_berry@discovery.com.

This post was originally published on PETA Prime.

Photo credit: German Rocca