FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, February 27, 1997
CONTACT:
Heidi Prescott, (301) 585-2591, heidi@fund.org
VATICAN CITY -- Because a February 26 Associated Press article reported that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge "is scheduled to meet with Pope John Paul II when he travels to Rome next week to promote Pennsylvania tourism," The Fund for Animals today faxed a letter to the Pope urging him to use his sway with Governor Ridge to put an end to Pennsylvania's live pigeon shooting contests and "to defend these most defenseless of God's creatures."
Wrote Heidi Prescott, National Director of The Fund for Animals and the daughter of a minister, "I call upon Your Holiness to express to Governor Ridge the importance of kindness and compassion toward all of God's sentient creation, including the pigeons that he permits to be so cruelly tortured." Adds Prescott, "Pennsylvania's pigeon shoots are nothing short of ungodly."
The Vatican has a history of speaking out for animals this week. A February 26 Associated Press article on the successful cloning of an adult sheep in Scotland reported that Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, Director of the Bioethics Institute of Rome's Catholic University, questioned the practice and stated on Vatican Radio that "men have the duty to respect animal species."
For a copy of the two-page letter faxed today to the Pope, please click here.