The following message was sent to me via the website. It is an appeal to abolish pigeon shoots...
As a fellow birding enthusiast, as well as a Pennsylvania resident concerned about wildlife and environmental issues, I am sending this email to enlist the assistance of the Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society in opposing a deplorable practice unique to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - live pigeon shoots.
Live pigeon shoot events are target shoot competitions where live, dazed birds are launched into the air from spring loaded or mechanical boxes while participants shoot from close range. Typically, approximately 70% of the birds released in pigeon shoots are shot and wounded rather than killed outright, with many wounded birds flying into surrounding neighborhoods to suffer for hours or days before dying. The birds are stockpiled in the weeks prior to a scheduled shoot event and 100s, if not 1000s, of birds can be subjected to this cruelty at a single shoot event. The live pigeon shoot events which occur at a Bucks County location are particularly disturbing because escaping birds are frequently shot over the Delaware River. I have personally witnessed numerous wounded birds struggle in the water and ultimately drown.
Live pigeon shoots warrant active opposition for numerous reasons, of which the animal cruelty component is clearly the most complelling and obvious. But, in addition to the extreme animal abuse and cruelty which characterize these events, there are serious environmental issues as live pigeon shoots also result in the release of pigeons who escape the shoot event into neighborhoods and locales where such birds are not typically found. Other environmental consequences arise from the high volume of dying or dead animals left on neighboring properties in the aftermath of a shoot event.
In May, 2009, Pennsylvania House Bill 1411 and Senate Bill 843 were introduced in our state legislature. This is legislation which seeks to ban live pigeon shoots. Unfortunately, the legislation has stagnated in the Judiciary Committees of both our state House of Representatives and Senate. I am sending you this email to ask you, and to ask your membership, to contact your state legislators to request that he or she support HB 1411 or SB 843 to ban live pigeon shoots. You can find out your state legislators contact information at
www.legis.state.pa.us/ Your phone call, email or letter can make a difference and help bring this cruelty to an end.
Should you desire any further information or wish to discuss this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Elissa B. Katz
215-205-2223
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