Mike Tyson’s new show about pigeon racing ruffles feathers

Mike Tyson's new show about pigeon racing is much a-coo about nothing -- unless you belong to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Upset by the show's portrayal of a "sport" that often leaves its winged competitors grounded for good, about 20 people on Monday flocked outside Tyson's gated Seven Hills neighborhood with signs decrying the former boxing champ's role in pigeon racing.

"Mike doesn't give pigeons a fighting chance," read some signs. "Featherweights: No match for a heavyweight," read others.

Lisa Lange, a PETA official who flew in from Los Angeles, said the protest was timed to follow Sunday night's debut of Tyson's show on Animal Planet. "Taking on Tyson" pits the former boxer and lifelong pigeon lover against other pigeon racers in the New York City area.

PETA hoped to ruffle feathers over the treatment of racing pigeons, who are separated from their mates and family and forced to race up to 600 miles to get back home.

As many as six out of 10 racing pigeons never make it, Lange said, likely the victims of birds of prey or sheer exhaustion.

"These animals are not racing because they enjoy it," she said. "It's out of desperation that they make it back."

At the protest Monday, few passing motorists seemed to give a hoot.

One young man in a car stood up through the sun roof and screamed, "People eating tasty animals!" using the oft-substituted words mocking PETA.

Tyson, who could not be reached for comment through his public relations firm, developed his love for pigeons during his troubled childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. He has said he threw his first punch after a neighborhood bully killed one of his pigeons in front of him, and he continued to keep and breed the birds throughout his rise and fall in the boxing world.

"The first thing I ever loved in my life was a pigeon. I don't know why," Tyson said in an Animal Planet press kit on the show. "Pigeons are a part of my life. It's a constant with my sanity in a weird way; this is just what I do. If I'm lucky enough to die an old man, I'm going to have birds."

Tyson had never raced pigeons until the reality show, which captures him training his birds leading up to matches with more experienced racers.

Nephi Oliva, who runs Nevada Pigeon Control, wasn't sure what the flap was about. Standing at the scene of the protest, he said Tyson's show will improve the image of pigeons, which are mostly demonized as disease-spreading vermin with wings.

"While Tyson's show and pigeon racing is not ideal, it does show them in a more human and friendly manner," he said.

Racing pigeons can be valuable, as much as $1,000 each, and their owners take good care of them, Oliva said. In fact, many local racers give their retired birds to his pigeon sanctuary instead of killing them, he said.

"They're well cared for. That's why they can fly 500 miles," Oliva said.

"That's not true," Lange countered nearby, sparking a brief flap between the two over manners and interrupting interviews.

Oliva said Tyson shouldn't be the target of protests because he loves his birds.

"If they should protest anyone, they should be protesting us," he said. "We shoot pigeons all the time."

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.