FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 8, 1997
CONTACT:
Heidi Prescott, (301) 585-2591, heidi@fund.org
Katherine Meyer, (202) 588-5206
Today, a Pennsylvania humane officer filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the Hegins Labor Day Pigeon Shoot in the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County. The plaintiff alleges that the annual pigeon shoot is illegal under Pennsylvania's Cruelty to Animals law (Pa.C.S.A. 18 $ 5511).
"We intend to prove that the pigeon shoot violates the Cruelty to Animals law year after year," declares Katherine Meyer, attorney for the plaintiff. "Ripping the heads from crippled birds, or leaving them to writhe in pain without food, water, or veterinary care, is a clear violation of state law."
The plaintiff in the case is Officer Clayton Hulsizer of the Pennsylvania S.P.C.A. He alleges that the defendant has violated Pennsylvania's Cruelty to Animals law by (1) annually organizing a live pigeon contest shoot in which thousands of birds are wounded for entertainment purposes, (2) killing wounded birds by tearing their heads from their bodies or by banging the birds against barrels or other objects, and (3) leaving wounded birds unattended without food, drink, shelter, or veterinary treatment.
At the 1996 Hegins Labor Day Pigeon Shoot, investigators from The Fund for Animals documented that about 77 percent of the birds released were wounded. Investigators monitored 4,124 pigeons released, and documented that 566 pigeons (14 percent) were killed immediately; 2,642 pigeons (64 percent) were wounded and retrieved by "trapper boys"; 532 pigeons (13 percent) were wounded but never collected; 384 pigeons (9 percent) escaped gunfire unharmed; and 3 birds were already dead when the traps opened.
At the 1996 Hegins Labor Day Pigeon Shoot, Officer Hulsizer cited a man who stomped a live bird to death with his foot, and Hegins Township Police cited another man who bit the head off a live bird. Both men were found guilty in District Court of violating the Cruelty to Animals law.
"If ripping a bird's head off with your mouth is a violation of the law, then ripping a bird's head off with your hand is also a violation," says Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals. "It is up to the Courts to halt this organized cruelty to thousands of animals."
The Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County previously dismissed a case against the Hegins Labor Day Pigeon Shoot, but on appeal the Superior Court ruled that the trial court should have made "a factual determination of whether the wounded birds are cruelly treated, or whether all reasonable efforts are employed to dispose of injured pigeons in a non-abusive way."
