Thanks to the hard work and dedication of PETA supporter, Simone Phillips, and our campaigners, the pigeons that were trapped, starving and dehydrated in Transport for London nets have been saved – hooray!

After more than a month of palaver with TfL, they finally pulled their finger out and the poor pigeons of the hour are now at a rehabilitation centre. But under which bridge will this nasty little incident crop up next? Time to stop scapegoating pigeons methinks, and treat them like any other animal. Well done Simone, gold star for you!

Image: BestFriendsNetwork / CC

A few weeks ago, a PETA supporter contacted us to say that pigeons were trapped, dead and dying in Transport for London (TfL) nets in Tower Bridge Road. It turns out that this is happening under bridges all over London.

So our campaigners worked hard to get TfL to sort out the situation at Tower Bridge, which after countless calls and e-mail exchanges, they finally did. Yet citywide, the pigeon control program seems to have made no progress. Apparently, TfL hasn’t replied to e-mails from the Met Police and not made any commitment to solve the London problem.

Countless pigeons and their unfledged babies, called squabs are trapped and the cruelty may, according to Pigeon Control and Advisory Service (PiCAS), violate the Animal Welfare Act 2006. “If TfL responded to transportation situations the way it has dealt with these starving birds, London would be at a complete standstill”, says our Managing Director Ingrid E Newkirk. “TfL is causing untold numbers of birds to die slow, agonising deaths even though humane and workable solutions are only a phone call away.”

We’re asking them to work with the PiCAS which offers solutions for humanely controlling pigeons - within the law. I’ll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, catch a load of this and (click to view):

Letter to TfL about pigeons

When a lady living in Greece contacted PETA about the animal abuse in the country, I thought at first she might mean the odd starving stray here and there. Then along came these photos and we were so moved, we just had to share them with you. Angela talks of companion animal poisoning, tethered horses and donkeys with no water in the blazing hot sun and physical abuse. WAG and GAWF have got more info on this.

There are two more pics that are a bit graphic, here and here. Your call…

According to a recent news article, a young woman and two friends were seen throwing a cat into the river Thames to meet his death. The three people were caught on CCTV sneaking up on tabby Kilo and throwing him over the side of the HMS Belfast in London Bridge before running away.

Not only is this sad and infuriating, it happened right round the corner from the PETA offices! So we’re offering up to £1,000 as a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever’s responsible. Kilo’s brother Oscar has also been missing since December.

DMX, whose lyrics show his shady stance on animal cruelty in such delightful songs as Dog Match has been arrested on charges of animal cruelty and drug possession. Considering Dog Match blatantly glorifies dog-fighting (seriously, hasn’t he learnt from Michael Vick’s mistake?) I don’t see how he’s going to get out of this one. The indictment came after reports that dogs were being abused on his property last year, led authorities to search his home, where they seized 12 pit bulls and found the bodies of three others buried on his property. Don’t worry, PETA US are all over this one and have contacted the prosecutor asking that, if convicted, DMX gets the maximum prison sentence, a ban on owning animals and counselling.

Image: Hdrlabs / CC

Late last week, our Alistair who deals with the vivisection side of PETA (or should I say, anti-vivisection…) took the Animal Liberation Project out on the road, so I thought it a good enough excuse to shamelessly plug it on Fish & Chimps. If you’ve ever thought there was a connection between how the human race treats animals and how in the past we have treated human beings, you were right. And to prove it, PETA has an online – and ‘real life’ – exhibition called Animal Liberation Project which shows just how connected they really are through the use of photography.

The images are pretty shocking, comparing horrific acts like beheading, experimentation, forced labour, force-feeding and more. But never have I realised just how much the past is linked to the present, and how the way animals are treated should be confined to the history books forever. If it is shocking and saddening to think of what happened to slaves, war victims and children in the past, it should be no different to how we view the enslavement and abuse of animals today.

Read about it and view the exhibition online (narrated by none other than the totally cool rasta poet Benjamin Zephaniah). Peta2 US has got its own exciting version too, where you ‘walk around’ a museum, just like a school trip…

A man has killed a cat because moggy ‘Chopper’ “was a bully”. This is the reason why a fully-grown man was arrested for punching a cat in the face and then throwing him in the river to drown. The curious kitty is reported to have been a “menace”, who crept into his neighbour’s house and “looked pleased” after knocking down a vase of flowers.

He says he wishes, “he could turn back time”, but he can’t. I’ll let you know a verdict as the investigation proceeds. I’ll leave you to make the comments on this one…