Crystal Palace basically did what PETA is asking before PETA asked. Phoenix, the young American bald eagle who took over the live-mascot role in 2024, hasn't flown across Selhurst Park all season. Plans for her maiden flight were scrapped at a match this year, and she hasn't been back since she was introduced. PETA has written to CEO Sharon Lacey demanding the club commit to "never using a live animal mascot again," building the case on the trauma of a noisy stadium flight that, for Phoenix, has never actually happened.
Palace shouldn't cave here, mostly because PETA is the worst possible messenger for a point that's largely already been conceded.
A wild bird of prey carried onto a pitch in front of a packed, roaring stadium is a strange way to entertain people, however well the bird is looked after. Eagle Heights in Kent trains and houses Phoenix, and nobody's alleging neglect. But being well cared for doesn't make a stadium a fit place for a wild bird, and on that point Phoenix comes up short. People who think the live-flight stunt has run its course are right. Palace seem to agree, which is presumably why Phoenix's flight got shelved and has stayed shelved.
PETA is a harder sell. Back in October 2012, the organization released a browser game called "Pokémon Black and Blue" that showed cartoon monsters battered and bloodied to make a point about animal cruelty. That's the same group now positioning itself as the sober arbiter of welfare at Selhurst Park. Dr Carys Bennett says "Bald eagles are revered as symbols of freedom, yet Phoenix is being used as little more than a prop to entertain football fans," and asks Palace to let Phoenix "spread his wings and retire." It reads well. It's also a press release aimed at a Premier League badge, because a Premier League badge gets headlines, and headlines are the business.
Look at the incidents the letter leans on: an owl killed by a ball, birds flying into glass, a falcon sinking its talons into a fan's scalp, and a supporter throwing a punch at a mascot. That last one is the 2015 case where Charlton fan Daniel Boylett took a swing at Kayla while handler Chris Belsey carried her on his forearm; Boylett was found guilty of attempted damage and violent disorder. A man assaulting a bird is an argument about policing rowdy fans. Dragging it into this letter shows a campaign hunting for a villain.
The target is a club with enough going on already. As of this week Palace sit 14th with seven points from their opening seven games, have shipped 17 goals, and just took a 5-0 beating at Brighton, with Pierre Sage under real pressure before Besiktas and Newcastle. Kayla flew here from 2010 until her death in the summer of 2020 and was adored for it. Lazio still fly one over the Stadio Olimpico; Benfica have Vitória. The live flight is a tradition fading on its own, and Palace have already let it fade.
Palace haven't replied yet, and they shouldn't grovel. Confirm the flights are done, say it's the right call for the bird, put it in their own words, and skip the lecture from an organization that gamified a bloodied Pikachu.
