KKK defends pigeon shoot; 2,000 protest Labor Day bird massacre but 5,000 support it. Time for new tactics?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

HEGINS, PENNSYLVANIA — A pigeon hit point-blank by a shotgun blast looks

like a spreadeagled angel for just a split second, until the pellets tear her white breast and wings

to pieces and she flaps to the ground, awaiting the trapper boys who will wring her head off.

Wounded angels to some, doves of peace to others, and flying rats according to the

human participants, 5,000 to 7,000 pigeons are shotgunned each Labor Day at the Fred Coleman

Memorial Pigeon Shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania. Held annually since 1934, the shoot was

reputedly dying of disinterest a half century later; but no more. Two thousand protesters turned

out this year, nearly double last year’s then-record number. Lured by the chance to heckle, be

on TV, and maybe see someone get killed dashing in front of the guns to save pigeons, the

crowd of shoot supporters doubled as well, to an estimated 5,000. Among them were several

motorcycle gangs and two robed and hooded Ku Klux Klan members from Ephrata, Penn., who

explained that they saw the event as a good chance to recruit.

Why They Can Hunt On Your Land–and what you can do about it!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Posted your land yet?

If you’re among the 56 million Americans who

live in a nonmetropolitan area, chances are that you

have, long since. If you didn’t, but value your safety

and security, you’d better hop to it, because if you

don’t, your chances of getting the law to respond to

reports of armed intruders may be mighty slim from the

end of summer until after Christmas. Fall, according to

state and federal wildlife agencies, is hunting season, or

rather a succession of hunting seasons: small game,

dove, waterfowl, turkey, grouse and pheasant, archery,

muzzleloader, deer, bear, and a variety of others

depending upon what’s left alive in your neck of the

woods. Anyone with a rifle or shotgun, especially if

carrying a big knife as well and dressed in camouflage,

is presumed to be hunting legally until there are dead

human bodies–unless the land is posted.