Group Finds Club Responsible for Rampant Suffering, Deaths of Birds
For Immediate Release:
April 30, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
New York -- A just-completed PETA investigation of pigeon racing spanning many states, including in New York City and the surrounding area, reveals illegal interstate gambling in violation of state and federal laws—including the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, felony gambling laws, and a prohibition on animal races for any bet, stake, or reward—to the tune of $200,000 or more per race. Illegal betting on pigeon racing in the United States is an estimated $15 million–a-year enterprise. PETA's investigators were able to film inside the Bronx Homing Pigeon Club, which holds the most lucrative races in the state. In formal complaints to the New York Attorney General's office and the New York Police Department, PETA calls for an investigation into and the prosecution of the individuals involved as well as the dissolution of the club—which is organized as a not-for-profit corporation.
"Pigeon racing is driven by money, but it's the pigeons who pay the ultimate price," says general counsel to PETA Jeff Kerr. "Birds who are suffering and dying by the thousands and bundles of illegal gambling loot right under the noses of law-enforcement officials should be an embarrassment to the city and the state of New York."
PETA's investigators documented the transport and release of thousands of birds from hundreds of miles away and accumulated evidence that in any given race, 60 percent of the birds are lost to extreme weather, raptors, electric lines, foul play, and exhaustion. PETA's investigators videotaped the Bronx club president as he talked about a race in New Jersey in which only 41 birds out of 769 released had returned within two days and another in Queens, in which only four birds out of 213 returned. Birds who survive the ordeal but who finish out of the money are typically killed by suffocation, drowning, or decapitation. A racer told PETA's investigators that when beginning in pigeon racing, "The first thing you have to learn—how to kill pigeons." The Bronx club president also appears on the video boasting about illegally killing protected raptors and discussing birds who've tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
