Mike Tyson Targeted by PETA for Pigeon Show

The animal rights group is going after the famed boxer for his new Animal Planet project, Taking on Tyson, which documents his entry into competitive pigeon racing.

 

Members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals not only plan to protest outside his gated Nevada community, they also have blasted him in a new statement: “If Mike Tyson truly loved birds, he would fight for their protection — not force them into a ‘race’ that tears them away from their families and subjects them to injuries, exhaustion and death,” said PETA Vice President Lisa Lange.

 

Animal Planet has yet to comment.

 

The show has received mixed reviews (THR’s Tim Goodman noted, “The series repeats itself so many times during the first hour that you’re tempted to bite the remote in half.”)

 

Tyson is hoping the show will introduce a new side of him to fans. “I have a pretty colorful past so you’re going to find out some interesting things about me too,” he told television critics in January. “But the main insight is the birds and what they mean in our lives. Even though I might be out there fighting and getting locked up, this is what we do. This is no hobby.”