Pennsylvania -- the only state allowing live pigeon shoots

Take aim at banning cruel pigeon shoots
by Patriot-News Editorial Board
Sunday May 24, 2009, 6:01 PM

Pennsylvania sadly still has the distinction of being the only state left in the nation allowing live pigeon shoots.

Opponents of the practice have tried for decades to ban pigeon shoots and now are asking legislators to ban two particularly appalling practices.

Here's what is allowed to happen in our state: Pigeons are put into mechanical launches and placed about 30 yards away from shooters. The birds are propelled, in some cases they are shot while they are still in the air, other times they fall to the ground and are shot. In another type of contest, the birds, including turkeys, are tethered in place so they cannot escape and shot.

The mechanical launch and tethering at bird shoots continue to be an embarrassment to our commonwealth. Other states have wisely banned the contests leaving us with the lone reputation of enabling them. In fact, many of the people who participate at pigeon shoots come from other states.

Fortunately many pigeon shoots -- Hegins comes to mind -- have ended because of court rulings or organizers bowing to public opposition. But many still persist and the mechanical launch has become a popular and cruel tool for the shoots. The Humane Society of the United States says that typically 20 percent of the birds that are launched are killed outright, 10 percent manage to escape and 70 percent are wounded and later die.

Some pigeon shoot supporters have tried to tie the practice to hunting. But real hunters know shooting a bird from a launch -- in some cases they are weighted down -- or one that is tethered is not real hunting.

Bills have been introduced in the House by Reps. Eugene DePasquale (D-York County) and John Maher (R-Allegheny) and in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Browne (D-Lehigh). The legislation would ban shoots in which captive birds are tethered or launched in front of the shooter. And the bills specifically say they cannot be used to restrict traditional hunting regulated by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

More than 22,000 birds are used as targets every year in the state for these shoots. The birds are captured on state land and on the streets of New York City. The HSUS says because Pennsylvania has become a repository for so many pigeons, organizers of underground shoots in states where the contests are banned buy their pigeons in the commonwealth -- giving us yet another black eye.

Pigeons aren't puppies. Putting the face of the birds on a poster might not stir the same emotions in people as did the sad-eyed dog photos displayed last year during the successful fight against puppymills.

But people should be no less outraged and the outcome should be the same. Legislators should end this cruel practice.