Target: Eric Snoeck, General Commissioner of Belgium Federal Police
Goal: Investigate allegations of animal cruelty in pigeon racing and build cases against any responsible parties.
While horse racing often finds the spotlight, especially around Triple Crown season, a lesser-known but no less lucrative form of animal racing has emerged in the public eye. The television mainstay 60 Minutes recently featured a story on pigeon racing, in which the birds are acclimated to a destination and then sent hundreds of miles from that destination. The first pigeon who finds and arrives at the destination wins a prize for the animal’s owner: a prize that can soar into millions of dollars. But this “sport” is placing the animals at the center of it at immense risk.
The 60 minutes segment focused on a rise in theft of race pigeons. Because of their abilities to turn a profit for anyone who has them, these birds have been targeted for abduction by organized crime rings and other bad actors. Dozens of stolen pigeons were recently confiscated in Belgium, where pigeon racing is most prominent. Once the animals are abducted, they face any number of welfare dangers, from black market breeding practices to inhumane methods used for smuggling them across borders (including luggage and socks).
But many racing pigeons face cruelty and abuse from the first moments they are introduced to this high-stakes world. PETA launched a year-long investigation in which the organization documented many cases of alleged abuse within pigeon racing globally. Pigeons were reportedly subjected to brutal training methods, and many pigeons who did not perform to standard were apparently killed. Living accommodations were often cramped. And in the races themselves, the investigation found that nearly two-thirds of pigeons ultimately died from a plethora of factors: predators, collisions, bad weather, and sheer exhaustion, to name a few.
Sign the petition below to demand the capital of pigeon racing do more to protect these vulnerable living beings.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Commissioner De Mesmaeker,
Lesson # 1: how to kill a pigeon. A trainer in the practice of pigeon racing reportedly cited this chilling directive as the first priority of training. While international investigations have been launched and criminal charges filed against individuals involved in these activities, all of the focus has remained on gambling or theft. These animals are not just commodities, however. They are living beings….and their suffering has been well-documented for anyone who cares to look.
If an animal is subjected to uninhabitable living conditions, deprived of sustenance, abused, driven to deadly exhaustion, and killed simply because the animal is deemed not ‘good’ enough, these circumstances would be classified as cruelty by any definition nearly anywhere in the world. Please make a full, thorough investigation into the allegations of widespread and pervasive abuse in pigeon racing a top priority. Fight for the real victims.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-W0212-034 /
