FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996
CONTACT:
Heidi Prescott, (301) 585-2591, heidi@fund.org
Cleveland Amory, (212) 246-2096
As the XXVIth Olympic Games begin this week in Atlanta, national publications are applauding the tradition of sport and are condemning Pennsylvania's continuation of live pigeon shoots. The Washington Post's "Countdown to Atlanta" coverage of the Olympics lists on June 28 the "History Highlight" and "History Lowlight" of the Olympic Games. The "Lowlight" being: "Live pigeon shooting was a one-time Olympic sport, in 1900. Belgium's Leon de Lunden won the gold, killing 21 birds."
"The Olympics tried pigeon shooting once, and they were disgusted so they gave it the boot," declares Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals. "Clay targets are good enough for the world's top shooters and the world's largest sporting competition, but Pennsylvania's slob hunters apparently are not good enough to compete on that level."
Even Sports Afield, one of the nation's largest hunting magazines, takes aim at live pigeon shoots in their August 1996 issue. On the history of target shooting, the magazine writes: "Shotgun competition came to the United States from England, where it began in the 18th century. The targets were live birds, released from small boxes, or traps. Trapshooting' became very popular and during the last half of the 19th century, challenge matches frequently attracted tens of thousands of spectators. But a dwindling supply of live birds, and growing public sentiment against using them for targets, spurred a search for other targets." The magazine reports on the growing popularity of clay shooting competitions, and concludes: "After more than a century, the birds of clay are still the best substitute for wild ones."
Adds Cleveland Amory, founder and president of The Fund for Animals and best-selling author, "The advocates of Pennsylvania's live pigeon shoots claim it is a tradition that dates back to 18th century England, but England banned live pigeon shoots in 1921. It's high time for Pennsylvania to join the rest of the civilized world and substitute clay for blood."
Less than two months remain until the Hegins Labor Day pigeon shoot in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the world's largest and most gruesome live pigeon shooting contest where more than 5,000 birds are killed and crippled each Labor Day. The Fund for Animals has repeatedly offered to purchase brand-new state-of-the-art clay shooting machines for Hegins Park, but the offer has always been refused.