Urgent: Ask Church to Ditch Cruelty to Animals
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UPDATE | July 3
Comment from Mr. Joey Lyons, one target of protest:
The scheduled pig scramble has been officially canceled. Thank you for your comments.
BACKGROUND
Social, intelligent, and loyal, pigs are highly sensitive animals who enjoy communicating with each other, making nests, and relaxing in the sun. But on Wednesday, July 4, the Bridge Foursquare Church in Christiansburg, Virginia, has scheduled a “Greased Pig Scramble” at its “Old Fashioned July Fourth Celebration.” Such events typically involve frantic groups of people chasing, grabbing at, and tackling terrified pigs in pens lined with screaming crowds. Being trucked to and fro and subjected to the violence and general chaos of these events is a horrific and hazardous ordeal for the pigs, who often sustain severe injuries such as broken limbs and backs. PETA has asked the church to replace this cruel activity with any number of humane alternatives, but to no avail. We need your help today!
Please politely urge the Bridge Foursquare Church to cancel the Greased Pig Scramble. And please, spread this alert far and wide!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Send polite comments to:
Email block
joey@thebridgeva.org , bsellers@thebridgeva.org
Individual
Joey Lyons
Youth/Associate Pastor
900 Life Dr.
Christiansburg, Virginia 24073
540-381-9766
joey@thebridgeva.org
Becky Sellers
Children’s Ministry Director
bsellers@thebridgeva.org
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Associate Pastor Lyons and Ministry Director Sellers,
I am disturbed to learn that on Wednesday, July 4, the Bridge Foursquare Church in Christiansburg, Virginia, has scheduled a “Greased Pig Scramble” at its “Old Fashioned July Fourth Celebration.” Such events typically involve frantic groups of people chasing, grabbing at, and tackling terrified pigs in pens lined with screaming crowds. Being trucked to and fro and subjected to the violence and general chaos of these events is a horrific and hazardous ordeal for the pigs, who often sustain severe injuries such as broken limbs and backs.
I am therefore respectfully urging you cancel this unjustified and cruel event. Pigs are marvelously intelligent and sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering; when you subject pigs to such indecent treatments, you not only condemn them to fear and agony, but you also demean yourself and establish that you are unsympathetic.
Furthermore, when you actively engage in this type of cheap entertainment in front of children, and, in fact, have children actually participating in such, you are demonstrating that animal abuse and disrespect are socially-approved activities, and the link between animal and human abuse is represented. I therefore urge you to cease this exploitation and demonstrate that yours is a community cognizant of the importance of animal protection rather than animal abuse.
Thank you for taking the time to read this urgent request.
NAME
we hope you listen
and do not besmirch,
the gentle teachings
of your church,
this so called game
is cruel
and a bad lesson to
teach.
kindness to ALL
beings is what
you should teach
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
this is along the lines of “SnapperFest”!!!! Brain dead….wires disconnected!!!
I know! And I think Snapperfest is still going on this year.
Glad I could help. I sent 2 seperate emails with my own polite words.
Wonderful, thank you so much, Margie.
we hope you listen
and do not besmirch,
the gentle teachings
of your church,
this so called game
is cruel
and a bad lesson to
teach.
kindness to ALL
beings is what
you should teach
great – lets hope they take heed
Emails sent.
Thank you so much, Stephen.
I sent them both emails, but the emails were rejected and not sent.
Same here; I wrote out my own email and it got sent back to me “no such user here”. Perhaps they’re inundated and tired of hearing about it? Let’s hope it leads to a positive action on their part!
That’s what I would guess – they are targeting our emails as spam, or they disabled their addresses intentionally so that they receive no more. Thanks for your help in any case.
This church event is ungodlike and cowardice.
I agree, thanks, Mack.
can you tell me where to click on this and send my signature for the petition. I am disgusted by these “pigs” harming that lovely intelligent animal!
nevermind, I found it. I guess I was too upset at that picture and looked right past it.
Thanks for your help.
Allowing and continueing these acts proves that animals are more intelligent than humans. God gave us brains to think and a heart for compassion, please use them.
Thank you, Mercedes.
the exploitation of animals is no different that if you had two females scantily clad rolling around in the mud – exploitation is exploitation – it is wrong – God meant for us to take care of the animals, not use or abuse them for entertainment if that is what this is referred to as. Celebrate America’s freedom, focus on all of those who have fought so hard for it, have a great picnic and invite everyone far and wide, no matter their religious belief, dance all day and night and then shoot off fireworks… now that is the way to celebrate the 4th of July. I personally must work, but I am thankful to have a job. Be thankful for what God has given you, don’t abuse and exploit it.
where do you sign?
please stop selling fois gras!
geese suffer quite horrid pain and cruelty…force feeding is just one part of it…there are much kinder foods…fois gras is chronically sick and wrong…..
CHURCH?????????
This ain’t the action of a church!!!!! This needs to be stopped, wrong messages being sent. Animals are our brothers and sisters and should be treat as such. Amen to ALL GODS CREATURES
The scheduled pig scramble has been officially canceled. Thank you for your comments.
Thank you so much, Mr. Lyons.
GREASE UP ONE OF THOSE BIG FAT BOYS AND EVERYONE TRY TO TACKLE HIM AT ONCE…… HE WOULD AT LEAST BE CONSENTING. THEY SEEM BACKWARDS ENOUGH TO PROBABLY THINK THAT WAS FUN. LET ONE OF THE TWO LEGGED PIGS BE THE OBJECT OF CONTENTION….YAHOO!!! SEE WHO CAN CATCH GREASED UP OLD JIMMY…HE WINS BLUE RIBBON EVERY YEAR!!! M
IGHT START A TREND//RIDIN FOR MONEY. HEY A NEW OLYMPIC EVENT!!! BE CREATIVE, STOP USING INNOCENT ANIMALS FOR YOUR SICK DEMENTED PLEASURE.
Please don’t make games like that again.
I sure hope it is really cancelled.
STOP ANY VANDALISM OF ANY ANIMAL….
I agree, thank you.
firme aquí! http://forcechange.com/25404/ask-to-church-to-stop-planned-pig-abuse/
The bsellers-mailadress is not working I just noticed. But now I see you all have the same problem?
They disabled the addresses so they would receive no more protests. The event was cancelled, though. Thanks, Praktijk.
Hello Stacey, thanks for your answer. And I’m glad they cancelled it. My name is Susan. Don’t know why my website ‘praktijk sentimo’ is showed here?? Maybe because it is made in WordPress?