Protect Pigeons! Pro-Bird PETA Appeal Hits City Airwaves

For Immediate Release:
September 27, 2022

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Starting this week, PETA is running a pro-pigeon plea from its series “A Minute for the Animals” on 103.5 KTU/WKTU-FM encouraging New Yorkers to be kind and help out any sick or injured birds they may encounter on city streets. Narrated by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, the spot shares interesting and little-known facts about pigeons, including that they’re devoted, family-oriented birds who mate for life and that they recognize their own reflections in puddles or mirrors.

“Like other New Yorkers, pigeons are keenly intelligent individuals who love their families, can feel pain and fear, and value their own lives,” says PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA is encouraging everyone to see pigeons as neighbors just trying to eke out an existence and help them out when they’re in distress.”

There are roughly 4 million pigeons in New York City, or one pigeon for every two humans. Even though humans have derided, raced to death, poisoned, and shot pigeons, the birds have been known to help rescue humans during wartime and spot sailors lost at sea. They have sharp memories and better vision than humans do and are one of just three species on Earth known to be able to distinguish between number groups and learn abstract mathematical rules.

The ad is running on 103.5 KTU/WKTU-FM between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. through Friday, September 30.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.