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The RSPCA has issued a warning a couple of new gender reveal craze that’s harming birds.
Parents-to-be have been utilizing pigeons dyed pink or blue to disclose the gender of their unborn baby, however one animal hospital mentioned the pattern might have contributed to the loss of life of a hen final month.
Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital shared a post on Facebook on an injured pigeon it acquired that had been dyed pink. A spokesperson urged individuals to “think before you follow these social media trends”.
“The pigeon was most likely used for a gender reveal party and is absolutely shocking,” they added. “It has become a horrendous trend and we are urging you to spread the message about the effects that this can have. Quite simply, it is an act of cruelty and is no way to celebrate the gender of your baby.”
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The spokesperson mentioned that the dye made the birds a neater goal for predators, whereas toxins may trigger them to turn out to be unwell if swallowed or inhaled. They added that because of the birds being bred in captivity, it was doubtless additionally they had no sense of learn how to survive within the wild.
“This pigeon sadly didn’t make it, he was incredibly malnourished, dehydrated and had significant wounds caused by the cat,” they added.
Exmouth farmers Andrew and Kate Lamont noticed a pink pigeon on their property, and shared the image of their native Facebook group.
Mrs Lamont instructed The Independent: “My initial thought was what had happened to the bird to make it go pink.
“We shared the picture and did a bit of a search and found out about these parties. It is not something we would encourage people to do, obviously. I was surprised, and haven’t seen the bird since.”
In the US final 12 months, a dyed-pink pigeon named Flamingo died after being discovered wandering by means of Madison Square Park in Manhattan.
An RSPCA spokesperson added: “The majority of us want the best for animals, and to treat them with respect – so intentionally painting a pigeon’s feathers is unacceptable as it could cause health problems, impair their ability to fly and make them more vulnerable to predators.
“In addition, dye and paints can be toxic to birds and other animals, and they would be likely to try to clean any such substance from their coat or feathers which could result in them swallowing it.
“From time to time we do hear anecdotally about incidents involving animals being affected in this way – and sadly we fear social media trends could be fuelling this.”
