Bob Barker’s passion for animal welfare advocacy extended to Pa.
Bob Barker was known around the world for his decades hosting some of the most popular television game shows. Some may recall his sign off on “The Price is Right,” reminding viewers to “spay and neuter your pets.”
Off screen Barker was a passionate advocate for animals, including in Pennsylvania.
Barker, who died Saturday at 99, put his money where his mouth was, spending millions on animal causes, supporting PETA and its efforts to end captive mammals at Sea World and sanctuaries for rescued lab chimpanzees, to those trying to protect the lowly pigeon from slaughter in Pennsylvania.
In 2010, Barker donated $1 million to an animal rights group fighting to end live pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania, the last state where the shoots were still legal.
Barker worked for several years trying to persuade governors, attorneys general and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to ban shoots. He even showed up in the state Capitol to press lawmakers to pass legislation to end the more than century-old practice.
He and his animal allies got close, but ultimately Barker was unable to persuade legislative leaders to take action to stop the contests where pigeons are launched from spring-loaded boxes at close range. Prizes are awarded to shooters who kill the most birds. Hundreds of injured birds are chased, stomped on or have their necks broken, often by children. Wounded birds that escape suffer and die from their gunshot injuries.
In a 2010 letter to Gov. Ed Rendell and Attorney General Tom Corbett, Barker wrote:
“Thousands of innocent pigeons, unaware of where they were or what was to be their fate, were stuffed into small wooden boxes, then launched into the merciless fire of shooters. The fact that Pennsylvania is the only state in the union where this inhumane carnage is allowed to take place, should be of concern to every citizen in the state.”
Heidi Prescott, senior vice president of companion animals for the Humane Society of the United States, is among the many animal advocates mourning Barker’s death.
“Sadly we lost a powerful advocate for animals today and are so grateful for his efforts here in Pennsylvania to pass legislations to end cruel pigeon shoot contests which shamefully he did not get to see pass before he died,” Prescott said.