P.U.T.I.N. (Pigeons, United To Interfere Now), a previously unknown radical group, glued “Make America Great Again” hats and Donald Trump wigs to pigeons’ heads before releasing them in Las Vegas last night, KSNV reports.
Accompanying the release, P.U.T.I.N. published a video of them releasing the costumed birds, which included voiceover from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film “The Birds.”
According to Newsweek, the group was inspired by the 1970s CIA operation “Tacana,” in which they tried using pigeons with miniature cameras to spy on the Soviet Union.
The release of the pigeons was meant to be an “aerial protest” to the 2020 Democratic debate, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The group wishes to remain anonymous, but a member going by the alias “Coo Hand Luke” said they coordinated the date so the protest would also “serve as a gesture of support and loyalty to President Trump,” who the New York Post reports is also currently in Las Vegas campaigning.
Group members attached the hats and hairpieces to the birds with eyelash glue, and built a special coop for the pigeons, The Washington Post reports. The costumes will stay on the pigeons’ heads until they are either removed or fall off on their own, which usually only takes one to two days, Coo Hand Luke told the Las Vegas Review Journal.