Animal Planet, the Silver Spring-based cable network that says it's the destination for animal lovers, announced Monday it has purchased a new TV series in which it will introduce Mike Tyson, the heavyweight pugilist and avid pigeon fan, to the competitive world of pigeon racing.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says pigeon racing is like dog fighting, in that the birds are put into cruel circumstances for the sake of winning cash prizes for their owners, and those that don't prove themselves to be winners can expect to be killed.

Animal Planet says "Taking on Tyson" will introduce Tyson to an "intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating" sport at which he hopes to become "crowned champion all over again." ("Taking on Tyson" will start filming this spring in New York City and will debut on Animal Planet in early 2011.) Animal Planet says the show "peels back new layers of the remarkable persona and deep humanity of Mike Tyson," and Animal Planet's general manager Marjorie Kaplan says that "Tyson's passion for his pigeons takes my breath away."

PETA finds its own reasons to gasp: "Animal Planet needs more programs in which people go to bat for animals like 'Whale Wars' and 'Animal Cops,' and fewer showcasing cruelty and profiteering at the animals' expense."

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk says of Tyson's breathtaking passion for his pigeons: "One wonders if Mike Tyson realizes that . . . these gentle, loyal birds who race their hearts out trying to get home to their life mates often end up lost in storms, or coming home just have their necks wrung for failure to beat their competitor's time."

PETA wonders if Tyson, in his anxiousness to rehabilitate his image, is being used to rehabilitate the image of a sport that needs instead to be exposed.

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