FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, July 29, 1997
CONTACT:
Heidi Prescott, 301-585-2591, heidi@fund.org
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Today, The Fund for Animals sent a two-page letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Samuel Hayes, requesting that the state extend its current "bio-security policy" for poultry explicitly to prohibit live pigeon shoots. Under the policy announced by the Secretary yesterday, county fairs in the counties of Lancaster, Chester, Montgomery, Lebanon, Dauphin, Berks, Cumberland, York, and Schuylkill cannot exhibit live poultry or their feathers, because of a fear that the current epidemic of avian influenza may spread to poultry.
A person at a fair in any of these counties could not even exhibit the feather of a pigeon. Yet, pigeon shooting contests are scheduled at the Strausstown Gun Club in Berks County on August 1-3, and in Hegins in Schuylkill County on Labor Day, September 1, where thousands of pigeons will be released and hundreds will escape unharmed to make their way into local populations.
Heidi Prescott, National Director of The Fund for Animals, wrote in today's letter, "In the interest of consistency, if the Department prohibits such a low risk activity as exhibiting feathers it should simultaneously prohibit an activity which has a much higher potential for spreading disease by releasing hundreds of birds into the environment."
The Fund has information that the pigeons for the Berks County shoot are coming from Lancaster County, the heart of the avian influenza outbreak, and the birds for the Hegins shoot are coming from Montgomery County. Prescott added, "The planned transport of birds from Lancaster County to Berks County this week, and from Montgomery County to Schuylkill County next month, and then the release of these birds into the wild, simply must be halted."
To view a copy of the two-page letter sent today, please click here.
