PETA shares Ozzy Osbourne message following his death and people are seriously confused

The family of Ozzy Osbourne announced his passing yesterday and, ever since the news was confirmed, tributes from fans and celebrities alike have been pouring in left, right and centre.

Some companies and organisations have also come forward to share some words following the Black Sabbath star's passing at aged 76, including none other than People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - better known as PETA.

However, the message they shared shortly after Osbourne's death has left people seriously confused over one specific word choice they used to describe him which critics clearly do not agree with.

Now, for some context, Osbourne first teamed up with PETA back in 2020.

He became the face of their ad campaign against declawing cats, with the tagline 'It’s an Amputation. Not a Manicure' with a press release at the time quoting him as saying: "Amputating a cat’s toes is twisted and wrong.

"If your couch is more important to you than your cat’s health and happiness, you don’t deserve to have an animal!

"Get cats a scratching post - don’t mutilate them for life."

PETA's statement

The statement on the passing of Osbourne from PETA's Senior Vice President, Lisa Lange, reads in full: "Ozzy Osbourne was a legend and a provocateur, but PETA will remember the 'Prince of Darkness' most fondly for the gentle side he showed to animals - most recently cats, by using his fame to decry painful, crippling declawing mutilations.

"Ozzy may have been the singer, but his wife, Sharon, and his daughter, Kelly, were of one voice when it meant protecting animals."

The tribute rounded off: "Ozzy will be missed by animal advocates the world over."

However, as not all fans may know, Osbourne has infamously been connected with several instances of animal abuse.

The doves incident

Back in 1981, Osbourne attended a meeting with CBS Records executives in Los Angeles.

Such a meeting actually took place before his solo career fully took off, and it was clear that he wanted to make a shocking impression.

And, to do so, Osbourne reportedly brought two live white doves - which are deemed a 'symbol of peace' - and intended to release them as part of a grand gesture.

Instead, in a moment of impulse, he bit the head off one dove and ripped the head off another which, quite understandably, left the record company execs beyond horrified.

He later told rock biographer Mick Wall that a PR woman at the meeting had been getting on his nerves.

According to Wall's book, Black Sabbath: Symptoms of the Universe, Osbourne 'pulled out one of these doves and bit its [expletive] head off just to shut her up.'

"Then I did it again with the next dove," he added, "spitting the head out on the table."

"That's when they threw me out. They said I'd never work for CBS again."

However, he later told Sounds' magazine's Garry Bushell a slightly different rendition of the story.

"The scam is the bird was dead. We were planning to release it there, but it died beforehand. So rather than waste it, I bit its head off," he said.

"You should have seen their faces. They all went white. They were speechless."

Regardless, the incident made headlines and helped cement the Birmingham-born singer's reputation as the 'Prince of Darkness.'

The bat incident

During a concert on January 20, 1982, in Des Moines, Iowa, a fan threw what the 'Iron Man' singer allegedly believed was a fake rubber bat onto the stage.

Osbourne, who is well-known for his theatrical and shocking stage antics, then picked it up and bit its head off.

However, the bat turned out to be real but was already dead and, while it wasn’t animal abuse in the sense of killing a live creature on stage, it was highly disturbing and considered disrespectful toward animal life.

Upon realising what had happened, the heavy metalhead was immediately taken to the hospital for rabies shots.

Speaking of the incident in 2006, he told the BBC: "This bat comes on. I thought it was one of them Hallowe'en joke bats 'cos it had some string around its neck.

"I bite into it, and I look to my left and Sharon [Osbourne, his wife and then manager] was going [gesturing no].

"And I'm like, what you talking about? She [says], 'it's a dead real bat'. And I'm... I know now!"

Although Ozzy claimed he thought the bat was a toy, the act very much so shocked the public and became one of the most infamous moments of rock history.

The cats incident

In an interview with Guitar Legends, Osbourne admitted to shooting 17 of his cats in the 1980s.

"I was taking drugs so much I was a wreck," he said. "The final straw came when I shot all our cats. We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all. My wife found me under the piano in a white suit, a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other."

In 2000, Rolling Stone reported that Osbourne admitted to shooting a 'henhouse full of chickens,' snorting a 'line of ants' and eating a bat's head.

". . . he has shot up a henhouse full of chickens and killed a whole gang of cats and snorted a line of ants like they were a line of cocaine and bitten the head off a bat, and catapulted meat (stomach and intestines, mostly) into his audience," the article stated.

'How is that gentle'

PETA's choice of using the phrase 'the gentle side he showed to animals' when discussing Osbourne's legacy understandably hasn't sat right with people online given the several instances that have highlighted pretty much the exact opposite.

Taking to social media, one X user penned: "He bit the head off a bat lmao how is that gentle?"

"He bit the heads off of 2 living animals you twits!" hit out a second while a third chimed in: "How dare you! He killed a bat on stage by biting off it's head! How do you support such things!?!?!?"

Another queried: "PETA... Is this really you posting?"

And a final X user echoed: "I honestly thought this was a satire account posting this."

Tyla has reached out to PETA for comment.