Rebecca Reid
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Here
is an eye-witness account of a truly awful day we spent
with 150 other animal-rights activists at the annual Labor
Day Pigeon Shoot, in Hegins, Pennsylvania:
7:30 AM:
Arrival in Hegins to find the road blocked ahead. In an
attempt to halt access to the park, a group of young animal-rights
activists are conducting an act of civil disobedience, linking
their arms with handcuffs through plastic tubes, encased
in large concrete-filled barrels. The local people are out
and shouting foul-mouthed abuse at the protesters, none
of whom can be more than 20 years old. Meanwhile-regrettably-an
alternative route has been found to the park. |
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8:15 AM:
We arrive at the site and find the shoot underway. The "locals"
are already downing beer after beer. T-shirts bearing the
defiant slogan "It's not about pigeons it's about freedom"
abound, and the sound of gunfire is deafening as we get
our first glimpse of how the shoot proceeds.
There are 5 traps in each of the 7 fields. A pigeon is put
in each trap and, on a signal from the contestant, one by
one, the lid of each trap is raised. The targets are 20
yards from the contestant and the birds are clearly not
in the best of health, emerging dozily from their traps
and
frankly hard to miss. Nevertheless, the kills are not clean.
Most of the "targets" fall to the ground, shot
in the wing and still alive. We have no legal right to rescue
any birds who fall on the shooting field and so must watch
the fiasco as they flutter lamentably on the ground until
the contestant has had his five shots and the team of children
who "clean up" after each round come along and
kill them by wringing their necks or stomping on their heads. |
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12:00 PM:
The beer is really flowing now, and so is aggression from
the crowd directed at activists. We have been warned to
stick together-one female protester last year was grabbed
by local women in the makeshift rest-rooms and, after her
arm had been broken in two places, her head was stuck in
the toilet bowl and the toilet was flushed... The protesters-a
lot of them in their teens-are doing an admirable job at
staying cool in the face of constant taunts and insults.
A new crowd is arriving too, with a whole new line in T-shirts.
The slogans aren't about pigeons and freedom any more, they're
about "white power" and "draft-dodging presidents."
And a traditional game has begun on the sidelines, the goal
being to prevent activists from (legally) rescuing any of
the pigeons who fall outside the shooting field, grab the
victim and kill it, to rapturous applause from onlookers.
The "nec plus ultra" in achievements is to bite
the bird's head off... I watch appalled as one wounded bird
lands in a tree above our heads where it sits for a few
minutes, dripping blood onto the ground as an ugly scrum
prepares below. Activists outnumbered 10 to 1 can only watch
in vain as the bird finally falls, to be snatched up by
one of Hegins' local heroes who brandishes his catch before
wringing its neck and throwing its limp body back onto the
field. |
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5:00 PM:
We leave the shooting site, relieved to escape the brutality-fest,
and head on down to see how the civil disobedience action
is going. Four of the protesters have been freed by firemen
and the final three are being extracted. They are in a bad
way: the temperature has been in the 90s all day and all
seven of them have been on thirst strike. A large and hostile
crowd is jeering and shouting at the police to "let
them suffer." "Welcome to America slant-eyes,"
shouts one local to a Japanese-American girl wearing an
oxygen mask. The woman next to me tries to throw her bottle
of
coke at the girl as she is dragged away by the state police...
All the kids are finally freed and taken away under arrest.
And, at last, we get to leave Hegins Hell.
10:00 PM:
It feels so good to be back in the "ghetto" of
Pittsburgh's North Side... |
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...It may seem that
there are more important issues in the USA than pigeon shoots...
However, what I saw at Hegins only convinces me that
brutality does not draw a line between Animal and Human.
And it seemed to me too, as a Brit, that I was witnessing
the two extremes of American ideals there: compassion and
a respect for life on the one hand, and a KKK mentality
on the other. Make no mistake, a spectacle of cruelty such
as the one we observed at Hegins only propagates the bloodlust
of the people who enjoy watching this kind of carnage...
The crowd at the shoot were openly hostile, and I hate to
imagine what would have happened to the young activists
doing civil disobedience if the state police had not been
there to keep the local crowd on the sidelines... |
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PIGEON-SHOOT CALL-IN OPERATION:
The organization Fund for Animals is
asking people across the United States to take part in a
call-in operation later this month (September). Details
are as follows:
Pennsylvania State Senator Roy Afflerbach
(D-Lehigh County) has introduced a bill to ban the use of
live pigeons in shooting contests-SB 764. Unfortunately,
because of their ties to the gun lobby, the Republican leaders
of the Senate and House have refused to bring the bill up
for a fair vote.
September 22-24:
Pennsylvania Residents Call-In Week:
Please call the House and Senate leaders below
and urge them to bring up the pigeon shoot legislation for
a vote. |
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September 29-October 1: National Call-In
Week
Aim: to flood the offices of
the House and Senate leader with calls from around the country,
telling them that pigeon shoots are a nationwide embarrassment.
Representative Matt Ryan, Speaker of the House: (717)
787-4610
Senator Robert Jubelirer, President Pro Tempore:
(717) 787-5490
If you live in Pennsylvania, also call your own State Senator
and State Representative and tell them to support legislation
to ban live pigeon shoots. Call the switchboard and ask
to be connected to their offices. If you don't know who
your Senator and Representatives are, please call the Fund
for Animals at (301) 585-2591. The organization can look
them up for you and tell you how they voted last time.
Senate Switchboard: (717) 787-5920 |
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House Switchboard:
(717) 787-2372
Please note the dates in your diary: just one phone call
can go a long way... |
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