• PETA to Queen Elizabeth: Stop pigeon racing

    By Scott Stump, TODAY contributor

    AFP - Getty Images file

    PETA is asking Queen Elizabeth to end her support of racing pigeons, which they deem a "cruel" tradition.

     

    Claiming pigeon racing is a cruel sport resulting in the deaths of thousands of birds, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written to Queen Elizabeth II asking her to stop supporting it.

    Queen Elizabeth is the patron of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, which dates back to the 1890s, and the royal has nearly 250 birds on her Sandringham estate in eastern England, according to PETA.

    “The Queen is a key figure in the sport of pigeon racing, and this is a very serious issue,’’ PETA UK spokesperson Ben Williamson told TODAY.com. “We hope the Queen will treat this issue with the importance it deserves because there are tens of thousands of birds dying.’’

    Buckingham Palace declined comment to TODAY.com.

    PETA conducted a clandestine investigation into cross-English Channel pigeon racing from July to September of 2012, and claims to have found evidence of thousands of birds dying during the races, millions of dollars in illegally accepted wagers on the races and unregulated release of birds. In the last decade, an average of 75 percent of the birds have not returned from the races and were presumed dead, according to PETA.

    Wpa Pool / Getty Images

    Pigeon racing involves releasing trained pigeons over a specific distance and determining a winner based on which bird returns home in the shortest amount of time. PETA estimates there are 40,000 pigeon racers in the United Kingdom who raise two million pigeons annually, the majority of which are used for racing.

    “These birds have to fly hundreds of miles to reach the English Channel and then are already exhausted before they get to this great body of water,’’ Williamson said. “They have no choice but to fly back (across the English Channel) because they don’t have the skills to survive in the wild.’’

    This isn't the first time PETA has targeted Buckingham Palace to change a policy. In 2008, the activist group met with British military officials to discuss fake fur alternatives to the traditional bearskin hats worn as part of the iconic uniform of the Buckingham Palace guards.

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  • Army investigates video of sheep beating in Afghanistan

    By msnbc.com staff

    Army officials are investigating a graphic video of a sheep being beaten with a baseball bat by what appears to be U.S. service members in Afghanistan, The Army Times reported Thursday.

    The report comes a week after another inflammatory video surfaced on the Internet that purports to depict four U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters — a clip that both Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned as deplorable. An investigation is ongoing.

    In the 30-second video, a sheep with horns is dragged into a large room and is clubbed 10 times with a metal bat by a man in dark civilian clothes amid laughter and cheering. One person is seen in the background jumping up and down. No attempts are made to stop the beating.

    According to The Army Times, military commanders in Afghanistan have condemned the incident, and an Army criminal investigation has been launched. The video reportedly first surfaced in November, but it's unclear when the incident occurred.

    "We are aware of a Live Leak video depicting the killing of a sheep," spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force told The Army Times in an email. "The actions of those involved are not condoned or supported in any way. We are currently assessing the situation to determine more information."

    PETA posted the video on its website and contacted Army officials, prompting an investigation. 

    "PETA did what it always does when someone blows the whistle on these incidents of gratuitous cruelty: We wrote to Secretary of the Army John McHugh and then, when no answer was forthcoming, to other high-ranking officers, including Chief of Public Affairs General Stephen Lanza and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command David E. Quantock," the animal welfare agency stated on its website.  

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