Here we go again with PETA – Wimbledon under fire for pigeon cull
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Tournament has come under fire from animal activists on the second day of Wimbledon for using marksmen to shoot down dive-bombing pigeons.
The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club does “employ” two hawks during the tournament to scare away pigeons who that have become a pest swooping down onto Centre Court and distracting players in the middle of tense matches.
However, the hawks have failed to keep the pigeons away from the players’ lawn and the open-air media restaurant, due to the high number of pigeons in the area, so marksmen were called in to shoot them.
“The hawks are our first line of deterrent”, said Wimbledon spokesman Johnny Perkins, “and by and large they do the job well enough.”
“But unfortunately there were one or two areas where the hawks didn’t deter the pigeons, so it was deemed necessary to take a harder approach,” he explained.
The marksmen were summoned by Wimbledon as pigeon droppings on the restaurant tables were thought to be a health hazard.
The decision to call in the marksmen was condemned as “cruel and illegal behaviour” by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which complained to the tournament organisers and the police.
“Since the use of marksmen to kill pigeons appears to have been carried out as a first, rather than a last resort, and not out of a concern for public health, but rather because the animals were deemed inconvenient by players, you appear to be in clear violation of the law,” PETA vice-president Bruce Friedrich said.
I do not know where this idiot from PETA comes from – what planet, I mean – but there is no law against shooting pigeons, as they are classed as vermin. It needs nothing to do with public health or whatever. PETA, kindly wake up and also, if possible, return to the planet whence you have come.
Apparently there are always again and again people who have nothing else to do but to involve themselves in needless campaign such as these. It looks like they cannot find anything else that can get them into the news well enough bar things such as the Wimbledon Tournament and pigeons.
I must say and will also do so that, while I am all for the environment and everything ecological, when it comes to pigeons, whether feral, as in rock doves in the cities, or to wood pigeons, as well as to the gray squirrel, that's where it ends and those end up in my freezer.
Does someone out there have the phone number for the marksmen? I'd like to contact them for the pigeons. My freezer could do with filling up and as food is getting a little expensive those would do nicely, thank you.
© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008
PETA upset after pigeons shot dead at Wimbledon
