Some folks have had their feathers ruffled over Wimbledon’s decision to deal with their pigeon problem - by using army marksmen to shoot down the birds.

ESPN reports that PETA is none too pleased about the tennis tourney exterminating the urban birds with extreme prejudice.

The animal welfare group wants to prosecute Wimbledon for committing cruelty to animals for shooting the birds out of the sky:

Under the Animal Welfare Act, a property owner must use lethal control as a last resort only if it can demonstrate, in a court of law, which non-lethal methods had been used and only if the target species presents a demonstrable risk to public health and safety.

Wimbledon officials respond that they’ve tried using a pair of hawks to scare away the pigeons, but a couple of areas around the courts needed a “harder approach” to get rid of the birds.

Officials also believe that the amount of pigeon poop that has befallen on the club’s restaurant presents a health hazard, thus covering the “demonstrable risk to public health and safety” factor.

We suppose that while dining on a traditional Wimbledon breakfast of strawberries & cream, it would be horrifying to discover that that’s not cream.

On the plus side, shooting down pigeons would help increase the club restaurant’s supply of squab.

But if Wimbledon is afraid of being labeled as trigger-happy, they can always bring in this player to take care of the pigeons: