You must thank my new assistant, Mark Zovak, for plunging me into this maddening issue. I was quite successful at ducking this lose-lose situation for almost five years of my radio program. Mark lined-up Hiedi Prescott, National Director for the Fund for Animals to do a radio interview with me. Naturally, it would be only fair to interview Bob Tobash, the 25-year organizer of the Hegins Pigeon Shoot. So the stage was set, back to back radio interviews. Why me, Mark, why me? What the heck, I love a good fight. Let’s do it.

 

Hiedi’s point was Hegins is a barbaric event whose time has come. She proudly admits she feels that way about hunting, too. She argued some of these pigeons get away wounded and fly off to die. She insisted this constitutes cruelty. She petitioned the PA Federation of Sportsman’s Club to convince PA hunters to join the Fund’s fight against all pigeon shoots. She was appalled that 12-year-old trapper boys were used to collect the dead and wounded pigeons. She was outraged that the young boys killed the pigeons if they weren’t dead. She plainly admitted her crusade is to end all hunting in America. Her next plan of attack was “canned hunts.” I have seen this legislation and it includes the demise of “game bird preserves.” She spun pigeon shooting and hunting together, suggesting hunters improve their image by joining the fight to end pigeon shooting. I listened to her carefully. I heard many things she did not say.

 

The next week I interviewed Bob Tobash. He was an articulate man defending tradition with logic. He declared the Fund should go back to Maryland. “This is PA and we don’t need outsiders to tell us what we can or can not do,” was Bob’s reoccurring theme. He reasoned this is a 66-year event with substantial economic benefits. Pigeon shooting is legal in PA and 42 other states. He explained these pigeons are trapped from all over the state and the Shoot buys them for $6 each. It cost $150 to shoot a round of 25 pigeons. The birds are launched from a trap. The shooter stands back 30 and 33 yards. It is not easy. About 25% of the birds are missed completely, fly away and live. Use poison or the gas chamber and none would survive.

 

Hundreds of pigeon shoots occur every year in PA. Ironically, since the involvement of Heidi and the Fund, the popularity and income of the Shoot has skyrocketed! All proceeds go to the enormous park in town for the benefit of children.

 

The event was cancelled this year because of legal wrangling. For 12 years the Fund has sued the shoot organizers. For 12 years the Fund has lost on the issue of standing. Previous judges ruled Maryland has no right to come to PA and interfere. This year the Fund used the SPCA for cover. The judge ruled the SPCA has local standing. In order for the shoot to continue, a veterinarian would need to be present to give the wounded pigeons a lethal injection.

 

Obviously, this is an emotionally charged issue with long term implications for hunters, not shooters. Although Hegins is a shooting event, not a hunting event, listen to Heidi carefully. The rationale the Fund for Animals has put forth you will hear again, when they sue hunters for cruelty to game animals. Shotguns usually do not instantly kill any animal; the hunter often must dispatch them. I taught my son to dispatch rabbits and game birds at age 8. Some game birds pursued in fair chase do get away wounded, only to die slowly and be consumed by predators.

 

What are pigeons anyway? They are nuisances and disease carrying birds and society categories them as unprotected vermin. Society doesn’t want them in high numbers anymore than society wants cockroaches. We do shoot groundhogs and other vermin and leave them for the scavengers. There is a definite sadness by hunters, by shooters and society when any animal is killed intentionally or accidentally. We know this. Death is sad by any method.

 

What is really driving the Hegins debate? It is the strategy of sensationalism by extremists to persuade society to assist in the perpetuation of their radical agenda. Filming the shooting death of an animal can influence the unknowing and uninformed and orchestrate outrage over a matter with no acceptable alternatives. Pigeons are a vermin problem like rats, mice, some snakes, wild dogs and groundhogs. Society must take action against certain categories of animals to minimize disease and conflict. Isolating Hegins is not about isolating cruelty to pigeons. It is about the first, small step necessary to bring an end to hunting, not pigeon shooting. It has become the battle line drawn in the sand.

 

The outdoor writers who editorialized against Hegins are hypocrites. If I invited any of them to a preserve to shoot stocked pheasants with my dogs, they would jump at the chance. If pigeon shooting is so offensive to our residents, our residents should call their legislators. We should have statewide dialog and maybe, change the law. The SPCA, Fund for Animals or the courts should not determine our future. In the true spirit of our state pride, “This is Pennsylvania and we don’t need outsiders to tell us what we can and can not do.” In other words, Heidi Prescott, go home. Amen.

 

“We will not lose our right to hunt in one cataclysmic legal case. Hunting will be killed slowly, like a cancer overwhelming the body and mind until we no longer have the strength to fight or the will to survive.”