Jun

What do Tennis and Army Marksmen have to do with Pigeons?

posted at 3:00 PM
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The answer? They all have had something to do with a decision by Wimbledon’s “All England Club” to stop killing pigeons.

Before I confuse you all to heck, let me explain:

Yesterday we had a report that the Wimbledon tennis authority – the All England Club – was engaged in using the services of army marksmen to destroy pigeons that have been inhabiting areas near the tennis grounds - you can read all this in the International Herald Tribune article here. Now, the point here (aside from the dastardly killing of those poor pigeons) is that according to the Pigeon Control Advisory Service (PiCAS)’s legal review of the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 (The Act) “a property owner must use lethal control as a last resort only if it can demonstrate, in a court of law, which non-lethal methods had been used and only if the target species presents a demonstrable risk to public health and safety.” (emphasis added)

So, sounds like it’s probably illegal bruvva! Of course, we sent a fax to the All England Club and advised the Police that we had done so, asking that this be ceased immediately and that the All England Club be prosecuted for their alleged violations of the law. We also contacted PiCAS (The Pigeon Authority) to let them know about our letter.

All geared up for a battle, we called the All England Club today (Wednesday) who actually confirmed that they will no longer be killing pigeons and will instead enlist the services of a hawk to deter the pigeons from the grounds. This is not a long term solution and it encourages the horribly violent activity of falconry (booo), BUT it will ensure that no more pigeons die at the tennis tournament, and we will be working with PiCAS and the All England Club to ensure that a sensible and ethical procedure is taken on board for the future.

Your “slightly chuffed with a happy outcome” Matt

P.S. Check out our “Fun Facts About Pigeons“

Tags: all england club, PiCAS, pigeons, tennis, wimbledon

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posted by p shearwood on June 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

what a pathetic bunch you are,stopping the killing of pigeons,they are far worse than rats in the spread of disease, irradicated all together,personally l proberby shoot thousands every year for local farmers,who have crops decimated by the filthy disease ridden vermin,why dont you find a worthy cause to support such as the thousands of dogs in dog markets in cambodia,instead of seeking cheap publicity from wimbledon

posted by RanDee Vee on June 25th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

NATURALLY, I am outraged by this violent behavior, which was poorly thought out, by those in charge!

I love PIGEONS…they way they COO….their gentleness….as I do love ALL animals !!

GLAD that a stop has been put to this ridiculous marksmen deal!! SHAME ON YOU, WIMBLEDON !!

posted by Ruth on June 25th, 2008 at 7:43 pm

Please tell me this is a wind up.I love the work that you do against animal cruelty but culling some pigeons is just about the same as setting the hawks on them, neither idea but hardly an maajor issue with real cruelty at its heart! Get back to the real horrors being perpetrated in the world and leave the publicity stunts to the politians. You lost some real credibility over this one.

posted by Niran on June 26th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Why Wimbledon wants blood? Can’t they use humane ways to drive away those pigeons? They can use Nets, Fake Hawks idols, etc…

posted by Lisa on June 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

Dear Peta.. there are the BIG urgent and important issues.. and the little insignificant ‘not so important’ issues..
IMPORTANT issues .. animal suffering/abuse in factory farming.. thousands of caged battery hens, the fur trade, vivisection, animal fighting.. circuses, zoos, the despicable bull fighting and all the other revolting Spanish forms of tormenting an animal for ‘amusement/entertainemnt’.. I could go on and on and on..
the little far less important issues.. shooting pigeons that are ‘bothersome’ in Wimbledon.. I don’t dislike birds (actually pigeons are qutie smart.. eg homing pigeons) but it pales in significance to the other real horros perpetrated to animals in all areas and industries.. where somethign shoudl be done about them..
I’d like to see Peta stick to the main issues.. organize campaigns.. help spread the message and educate the public..
harping on about a few pigeosn in Wimbledon is surely is not helping nor achieving anythng much in bringing the animal rights movement any much more ‘forward’..

posted by Matt on June 26th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Hey Lisa,

We love that you care about the big stuff and of course we agree with you about how important it is but we can’t understand where you got the idea that we don’t do that. Look at our site, look at the blog! We spend most of our time on the big stuff but dealing with this took one person less than an hour. Because of what he did, some pigeons that might have been shot today are alive and well and we’re all proud of that.

We can’t legally go into a slaughterhouse or a lab or a bullring and actually stop people killing animals but we were able to save these lives with a phone call. We also think that it’s important that people should think about all animals. The most abused animals are the ones nobody likes very much - the chickens in factory farms and the mice and rats in laboratories. If people stop to think about how interesting and valuable unpopular animals like pigeons are and how wrong it is to kill them too they might start treating other animals better. We saved some lives, we made people think, we’re still doing the big stuff and we’re proud of all of it.

Matt

http://

posted by kim sanderson on June 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

well deone in stopping this cruel act against the pigeons ,i find p shearwoods comments funny knows nothing about pigeons yet loves to kill them like anything else that lands on farms are classed as vermin so out comes the gun (kill it).we have seen the destruction to our beautiful wildlife destroyed over the years by farmers with pesticides john wayne hunters with guns .
what about the 120,000 pigeons used in the wars to help save thousands of our servicemens lifes
of this great nation .that probably gave you the right to your so called pleasure of killing anything that moves .

save our pigeons

posted by lynne lee on June 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am

l,peta, and anyone who cares about animals, are not selective on which animals we defend from suffering by human behaviour, they all have a place, and all deserve respect, compassion and protection. The poor pigeon has become scapegoat for anyone who wishes to show thier power over animals,its a soft and easy target, its need for food leads it to take risks, many suffer with badly damaged feet, leading to lameness, infection and death. There are youths who catch them, and use as toys in the cruelest of ways, many kids and in increasing numbers kick out at them, even children taking out their frustration
on pigeons, not harmless chasing, wilful and aggressive kicking, what animal next, for many its cats, and so it goes on,till some get to people.
The probable most diseased carrying creature is human beings, the pigeons alleged label of vermin and disease carrier, is greatly exaggerated often by local authorities, as they dont like pigeon droppings on their ugly architecture, and of course they like to increasingly show their power over every minor issue, we can fine you, even imprison you disobeying us, pigeon feeding being just one of many minor issues.
l personally have been warned l`m being watched on cctv and could be fined 2000p for feeding them
l will help any animal who needs help anyway l can, and most of us also care for people.
Those who dont care for animals, often dont people either.

What do Tennis and Army Marksmen have to do with Pigeons?

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