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On September 5th, U.S. Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, hosted a pigeon shooting party to raise funds for his re-election campaign.

In spite of the Senator’s efforts to keep out animal rights activists, an undercover investigator from SHARK infiltrated the event and took close-up footage. During the hunt, 1,000 captive birds were thrown into the sky and shot down. Those who escaped from the killing field with gunshot wounds suffered and died over a period of hours or days.

On Tuesday, SHARK is holding a press conference to announce that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding multiple potential violations of state and federal law, including the use of federal property, state employees and government vehicles for a political fundraiser and the transport of pigeons across state lines.

Bob Barker, the former host of the Price is Right, recently narrated a short public service announcement to raise awareness of canned pigeon hunts:

Please share these videos and take a moment to learn about the critically important work done only by SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect & Kindness) to protect animals who are tormented and killed in canned hunts, rodeos, and other exploitive “sports.”

Price is Right host and animal rights activist Bob Barker sent a high profile letter to the Oregon Zoo demanding that they send Packy to a sanctuary. Packy is an elderly elephant with tuberculosis who has spent his entire life at the zoo.  “After 52 years of service, Packy deserves to be sent to a place where he can enjoy his final years in peace and serenity,” said Bob Barker. During Packy’s recent birthday “celebration,” the animal rights group Free Oregon Zoo Elephants, which campaigned to get Packy elected to the City Council via write-in ballots, staged a protest in front of the zoo.

Elephants want freedom, not cake. Photo: Michael Durham

If social media is any indication, the world is waking up to the plight of captive elephants — intelligent and socially sophisticated animals who are deprived of virtually everything that comes naturally to them in zoos and in circuses, where they are also beaten into submission with bull hooks, confined for up to 100 hours at a time in box cars and forced to perform tricks in exchange for nourishment. Please support Free Oregon Zoo Elephants in their effort to send Packy to a sanctuary.