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Pennsylvania: Support Bill to Stop Cruel Pigeon Shoots
September, 2008
It's hard to believe, but some parts of the country find it acceptable to use live animals as target practice. In Lancaster County recently, a hunting club staged an event in which live turkeys were tied to hale bales as targets for bystanders, who took aim at the birds with arrows as they tried to fly away.
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, live pigeon shoots-in which tame pigeons are electronically vaulted from boxes in front of a line up of gun-wielding shooters-are regularly staged as entertainment. Pigeon shoots invariably result in the maiming and protracted suffering of hundreds of birds at each event. Injured birds who fall from the sky are retrieved by children, who finish off the birds by wringing their necks or ripping off their heads.
Photo courtesy of Derek Goodwin
In the past, some of the refugees from these cruel pigeon shoots have found safety at our New York Shelter. Today, many of their offspring roost happily in the rafters of our barns, secure in knowing that they will never be killed for target practice by cruel shooters.
To stop the practice of using live animals as targets at staged shooting events, Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus (D, 113) and Sen. Patrick Browne (R, 16) introduced H.B. 2130 and S.B. 1150 respectively, to ban "the use of live animals or fowl for targets at a trap shoot or block shoot."
Although these two bills had stalled, they were recast as amendments onto other, separate bills. If passed, these two amendments, Amendment 8210 to H.B. 1543 and Amendment 8209 to Senate Bill 151, would put an end to live pigeon shoots and other events like tethered turkey shoots in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, they stalled in committee, yet new legislation to ban pigeon shoots is expected to be introduced in 2009.
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