It’s hard to spend any time reading the Bible without coming across a passage about birds. Just a few verses into Genesis, we read that God created birds, blessed them, and called them “good.”
And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’”
—Genesis 1:20–22
But since 2008, experimenter Christine Lattin has been tormenting and killing birds in cruel experiments that have no scientific value. Her current round of publicly funded tests at Louisiana State University (LSU) involves capturing sparrows from their homes in nature, withholding food from them for up to 15 hours, and then placing unfamiliar objects that are likely to scare them—such as a blinking light, yellow pipe cleaners, or an opened blue cocktail umbrella—near their food dishes to see how they’ll react. Although the birds are hungry, many become fearful and are hesitant to eat.
After subjecting the birds in her laboratory to a battery of frightening tests and weeks or months of stressful captivity and isolation, she kills them all—and then captures more victims for her next round of experiments.
As part of PETA’s work to stop this cruelty, PETA LAMBS is placing ads in local newspapers and magazines to remind people that animals are not ours—they’re God’s—and to urge them to speak up for sparrows.
In previous experiments, Lattin has blasted nesting pairs and their babies with terrifying predator sounds, stuffed birds in bags, made them eat crude oil, wounded their legs, damaged their adrenal glands, and yanked out their feathers. This abuse would be criminal if it were done outside a laboratory. After hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of bird deaths, Lattin hasn’t produced a single finding that benefits humans, birds, or any other species. All she produces are useless data that allow her to publish papers and ask for more funding.
The Bible illustrates again and again how much God loves His birds, how He cares for them, and how He created them to fill the skies and trees with their beauty and the air with their songs.
But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
—Job 12:7–10
The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.”
—Psalm 104:12–13
On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.”
—Ezekiel 17:23
Among my people are the wicked who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch people.”
—Jeremiah 5:26
In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.”
—Hosea 2:18
You can help “the least of these” by urging LSU to end Lattin’s deadly experiments on gentle sparrows:
