Inquirer Editorial: Caged birds aren't singing to be targets
If someone kidnapped puppies and kittens, tied ropes around their necks, stuffed them into tiny boxes, and then released them to be shot at close range, it would be considered intolerably cruel. But substitute pigeons for puppies, and it's tolerated as a biweekly sporting event in Berks County.
If someone kidnapped puppies and kittens, tied ropes around their necks, stuffed them into tiny boxes, and then released them to be shot at close range, it would be considered intolerably cruel. But substitute pigeons for puppies, and it's tolerated as a biweekly sporting event in Berks County.
Astonishingly, pigeon shoots are still going on in Pennsylvania, and game officials have done little to stop them. Even though bills to explicitly outlaw the hideous practice have been repeatedly introduced in the legislature over the years, none has progressed beyond committee approval.
The National Rifle Association, which wields outsize influence in Harrisburg, has opposed ending the shoots. It's sent out paranoid missives to gun owners saying that a ban on pigeon shoots would be the beginning of the end of hunting, the theory being that ominous antigun forces want to kill hunting one species at a time, starting with pigeons.
Real hunters, however, oppose pigeon shoots. This fake sport is an insult to sports men and women, who have no interest in shooting tethered or dazed game at close range.
No conspiracy to end hunting exists. And the NRA's disgraceful behavior in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre should have diminished its credibility - even in the Pennsylvania legislature.
The latest bill to prohibit the shoots was recently sent to the state Senate Judiciary Committee. But a similar bill made it out of committee in 2011 only to die due to inaction.
Inaction has allowed the brutal shoots to live on, which is more than can be said for most of the pigeons involved. According to the Humane Society of the United States, about 20 percent of the birds are killed instantly upon release. Another 10 percent escape. The remaining 70 percent flop injured to the ground, where they bleed to death or, worse, are scooped up by teenagers who wring their necks or cut off their heads with clippers.
Pigeon shoots have their roots in England, which long ago abandoned them as uncivilized. In Pennsylvania, shoots have been held since before the Civil War. After protests and a court case caused sponsors to shut down a notorious Schuylkill County shoot in the late 1990s, the events have been held mostly in secret. Participants likely want to avoid the public outcry and cover up the gambling that accompanies the shoots, as well as the poaching of birds from other states with tougher animal-cruelty laws.
Republican and Democratic legislators have signed on to a bill to strengthen Pennsylvania's animal-welfare law. Sponsored by Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), it should be passed and signed by Gov. Corbett. The commonwealth deserves better than to be known for this disgusting display of mass animal cruelty - all for the entertainment of a few lousy shooters.
