Who Shot Those Pigeons?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

HARRISBURG, Pa.––The Sept-
ember 9 edition of the Valley View Citizen
Standard took a few weeks to reach partici-
pants in the Labor Day protest against the
59th annual Fred Coleman Memorial Pigeon
Shoot, but when it did, it ignited a furor.
The hometown paper of Hegins,
Pa., where the pigeon shoot is held, pub-
lished the names and scores of all pigeon
shoot registrants. Among those listed as
scoring, a euphemism for killing pigeons,
were seven protesters who paid the $75 reg-
istration fee in order to let pigeons escape
by intentionally shooting high, low, or
wide when the traps were opened. Twenty
pigeons were released for each registrant to
shoot at, one at a time, on command.

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ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

Citing fear of liability if they
should inadvertantly euthanize a pet, under
a new state law directed at pet thieves, the
Oregon Humane Society and Multnomah
County Animal Control now refuse to
accept cats brought to them by private citi-
zens and independent groups who trap ferals
and strays. The Portland-based group
Committed to Animal Protection,
Education, and Rescue charges, however,
that fundraising tactics are involved.
CAPER cites a letter from OHS staffer
Sharon Harmon, who wrote, “Despite the
services provided by OHS (to cats brought
in by independent rescuers), we received no
cash donations for their care. If we had
made contact with the owner or finder at the
time of surrender, by modest estimation, we
could have potentially realized $18,000 in
donations.”

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DOGS & CATS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* Wildlife officer Ric Nattrass of the Queensland (Australia) National Parks
and Wildlife Service has concluded that, “Based on data collected by wildlife staff
at the Moggill Centre (in Brisbane), there is no evidence to date that the domestic
cat is a major threat to the long term survival of the city’s native fauna. From a
purely conservation point of view, neither the numbers nor the species taken by cats
are cause for alarm when compared with the losses to urbanization, industrializa-
tion, motor traffic, and the creation of the horse paddock.” Nattrass’ report is
based on the experience of a single metropolitan area, as critics are quick to note,
and flies in the face of conventional belief; but it is worth pointing out that the only
other major study of domestic cat predation to date, by John Lawton and Peter
Churcher, was also based on the experience of a single location, a village in thesub-
urbs of London, England, and also concluded that while cats kill significant num-
bers of animals, the overwhelming majority are common mice, voles, and birds
(principally sparrows).

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ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* The Sprint telephone service and the
American Humane Association have set up a
nationwide hotline to help reunite lost pets
with their keepers. Reporting a stray is free:
call 1-800-755-8111. To report a lost pet, call
1-900-535-1515. The cost for lost pet calls is
$1.95 per minute, a portion of which is donat-
ed to AHA. The average lost pet report takes
four minutes to complete, according to Sprint.
* Paige Powell and Tama Janowitz of
New York City produce a TV show in cooper-
ation with the animal rescue groups Being
Kind and the Animal Project to promote pet
adoptions. Called It’s A Dog’s Life, the show
airs on channels 16 and 17.

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Hunting news

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Arizonans will vote November 3
on a referendum measure to ban
trapping, portrayed by the National Rifle
Assn. and National Trappers Assn. as an
attempt to ban all hunting and fishing as
well. The initiative is sponsored, however,
by Arizonans for Safety and Humanity on
Public Lands, whose initial board of direc-
tors included a hunter and a gun dealer. The
group declined funding from the Humane
Society of the U.S. to avoid confusing the
issues.

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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.

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