Honouring Dame Vera Lynn on Her 100th Birthday
Dame Vera Lynn, who turned 100 today, became famous for singing about bluebirds and nightingales, but it’s pigeons and geese who have benefited the most from her kindness.
Dame Vera has long been a staunch supporter of the British troops, so she was understandably distressed to learn that pigeons – loyal birds who served their country by delivering vital messages during both world wars – are being shipped to the Continent each year before being forced to fly across the hazardous English Channel. After viewing PETA’s exposé on pigeon racing, she said this:
Separating pigeons from their mates and forcing them to fly, exhausted, across the vast Channel is an utterly cruel pastime. With hundreds of thousands of birds lost at sea each year, the Channel has become a veritable bird graveyard for these forgotten heroes.
Dame Vera has also taken Fortnum & Mason to task for selling foie gras, even though the production of the fatty liver is so cruel that it’s banned in the UK. In a letter to the retailer, she wrote, “For a department store with such a proud British heritage, it made me sad that you would wish to tarnish it by associating yourself with the force-feeding of animals”.
We hope people will be inspired by her compassion to take a stand against cruelty by refusing to support these callous industries.
