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Squabbling Over the Pigeon Bill (Part III)

July 23, 2008


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	Animal protection advocates and others are trying to stop the use of live pigeons for target practice.

"It does not require any courage to shoot a pigeon launched from a box, and it shouldn't require much more for a legislator to decree that it is wrong to do so," says Heidi Prescott, who is acknowledged even by opponents as one of the most effective lobbyists in the Pennsylvania state capitol. But, Prescott is facing a formidable opponent.

"Banning pigeon shoots would be a first step in advancing [the] agenda [of animal rights activists], and they won't stop there," wails an alarmist message on the NRA website. "It's the first step in an agenda that would prohibit all hunting," NRA spokesperson Rachel Parsons told the Pittsburgh City Paper in February 2008.

"That's a ridiculous argument, and nothing less than a scare tactic," says Karel Minor, executive director of the Humane Society of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Roy Afflerbach, who grew up on a farm, says he hunted "from the time I was old enough to walk into the field." He says, "We grew up with a reverence for life, and never shot anything that we couldn't eat, that gave us sustenance for life." Opposing pigeon shoots "is not a firearms or hunting issue, but an issue of violence and animal cruelty, the mass killing of animals and birds solely to award prizes," says Afflerbach, now president of the Afflerbach Group after serving four years in the state House of Representatives, 12 years as a senator and as Allentown mayor.

An Extremist Agenda

"Only the most extremist hunters would defend launching, shooting and then dumping animals into a trash bag as hunting or as a sport," says Heidi Prescott.

Jerry Feaser, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, agrees. Pigeon shoots, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "are not what we would classify as fair-chase hunting."

Rep. Shimkus told the Scranton Times-Tribune, "I do not support gun control," and vowed to "never allow this bill to go forward if it had to do with gun control." The bill specifically excludes legitimate hunting activities.

Karel Minor says his organization became involved "because reasonable hunters," including those on his board of directors, "deem pigeon shooting is so far out of the mainstream." Reasonable hunters, he says, realize that "it's cruelty in order to make money from shooting animals that are catapulted."

If Pennsylvania hunters are really worried, says Heidi Prescott, "they can look at other big hunting states—like New York, Texas, Montana, West Virginia, and Michigan." These states, says Prescott, "have outlawed captive bird shooting, but hunting continues unaffected."

Indefensible from Any Angle

While the NRA is expending considerable time and resources to block the bills, most of the state's sportsmen's organizations, says Afflerbach, "recognize that this 'sport' is indefensible." The 4,000-member Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania (USP) has not devoted resources to trying to quash the bills; only a one-line notice in a list of bills USP opposes indicates that organization opposes the ban on pigeon shoots.

There were about two dozen shoots during the past year at the Pikeville Gun Club, Strausstown Gun Club and Wing Pointe in Berks County, as well as one at Valley View in Schuylkill County and Erdman in Dauphin County. At each shoot, more than 1,000 pigeons are killed and thrown away.

Dave Comroe no longer goes to pigeon shoots. "It's not too exciting for me," he says. "It's not something I'm interested in. It's not my thing," he says. His "thing" is competitive trapshooting. Comroe now kills inanimate clay pigeons made of tar and pitch, hitting about 96 percent from the 16 yard line, occasionally busting a perfect 100 to earn championships.

Heidi Prescott and the 11.6 million members of the Humane Society, about 7.3 million more than the NRA, wish the few hundred Pennsylvanians who are active pigeon shooters would follow Comroe's example and stop participating in the cruelty of pigeon shoots—either voluntarily or by force of law.

Dr. Brasch attended and reported on five pigeon shoots. An award-winning syndicated columnist, he is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University and president of the Pennsylvania Press Club. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (November 2007), available through amazon.com and other bookstores. You may contact Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu or through his website at: www.walterbrasch.com.

Squabbling Over the Pigeon Bill (Part II)

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Unmasking Live Pigeon Shoots

Throwing Live Pigeon Shoots to the History Books

Bill Could End Pigeon Shoots in Pennsylvania

Cruel Pigeon Shoot Stopped in 11th Hour