Shooting has long been a staple at the Olympics, with the sport appearing in the first modern Olympics in 1896. While competitors typically shot at disc-shaped targets called clay pigeons, the 1900 Games in Paris went with livelier targets – real pigeons. Live birds were held and released, as athletes took aim at the moving targets. Reportedly more than 300 birds were killed in the event. Although PETA wasn’t around at the time to protest the use of animals, Olympics officials decided to skip the living targets from then on. When the London Games of 1908 featured running deer as targets in the shooting event, cardboard cut-outs were used.
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