SHARK SHowing Animals
Respect and Kindness
September 2017
Take Action: Governor Wolf and the legislature of Pennsylvania must rectify their mistake, and ban pigeon shoots forever:
Click
HERE for contact info for Governor Tom Wolf
PA residents: Click
HERE for contact info for your state representatives
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Federated Humane Societies of PA, that supported Libre’s Law and knew about the exemption, sold out pigeons just to claim a victory.
One of the many birds SHARK has rescued from pigeon shoots in PA. These
birds have been betrayed by those who supported Libre's Law with the pigeon
shoot exemption
SHARK investigators were originally excited when we read the new
language of Pennsylvania’s new anti-cruelty statute commonly known as
"Libre’s Law." However, that excitement turned to horror when we realized
that an amendment had been added to the law that gave an exemption for,
"Shooting activities not otherwise prohibited under this subchapter.” In
other words live pigeon shoots.
And just like that, groups such as the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS) and the Federated Humane Societies of PA, that supported Libre’s Law
and knew about the exemption, sold out pigeons just to claim a victory.
SHARK's position had been that pigeon shoots violated pre-existing state
law. You can read our report on this HERE. To summarize, pigeons were
neither covered under game code regulations nor were they exempted from the
cruelty statute. Therefore, as an un-exempted “animal” they were a protected
species.
SHARK investigators were not the only ones who knew that pigeon shoots were
already illegal. SHARK released videos with five current and former humane
police officers who went on the record stating the illegality of pigeon
shoots. These included Former PA SPCA Executive Director Erik Hendricks,
retired PA humane society police officer Clayton Hulsizer, retired PA humane
society police officers Johnna Seeton, Debra Hartman and Berks County Humane
Society Executive Director and PA humane society police officer Karel Minor.
Pigeon shooters got away with their indefensible illegal cruelty simply due
to their wealth, power and political connections.
Once the exemption outrage was exposed, HSUS quickly sent out an email
claiming that the exemption maintained the “status quo,” in other words,
pigeon shoots were already legal. What HSUS failed to say was that they know
this is false.
How did they know? Because in the fall of 2013, state and national
representatives from HSUS had a meeting at the PA Attorney General’s office,
where SHARK Investigator Stuart Chaifetz presented the same report listed
above. HSUS was very impressed with our report and we left that meeting in
agreement over SHARK’s strategy. So if you receive the HSUS email about
Libre’s Law, please remind them about this.
At this point we need to let you know that for years, HSUS begged SHARK many
times not to take action that they felt would hurt legislation banning
pigeon shoots in the PA legislature, and though we had to bite our tongue,
we did because we did not want to take any chance of hurting a bill’s
passage. Sadly, after years of empty promises from HSUS that a bill was
about to become law, it never did. HSUS has now suffered decades of failure
and to make matters infinitely worse, the bill they supported has now
negated SHARK’s main strategy for ending pigeon shoots.
HSUS didn’t give us the courtesy of a warning about the exemption because
they knew we would be against it. Instead they shoved a proverbial knife in
the backs of the pigeons, and those who protect them.
Even amongst the groups that supported Libre’s law there was disagreement
about the legality of pigeon shoots. While HSUS are hanging everything onto
a claim that pigeon shoots were legal, the aforementioned Karel Minor (from
Federated Humane) has not only stated shoots were illegal, but he was quoted
in Animals 24/7 as saying the following:
“Since the existing law has not been successfully used to prosecute a
shoot,” Minor contended, “this exemption is not standing in the way of
successful prosecutions, since none are occurring. In the counties where
shoots occur, District Attorneys have actively quashed prosecutions on any
grounds, including in Berks County by Humane Pennsylvania, regardless of
current law.”
This is 100% false. Last year, video SHARK took at a pigeon shoot in Bucks
County, where a worker tortured pigeons, was given to the Local police and
District Attorney. That person was charged with and pled guilty to charges
of animal cruelty. This was an historic event and we proved it was possible
to obtain successful prosecutions.
While the exemption is a devastating set-back for our fight against
pigeon shoots, we are committed to redoubling our efforts in PA. We will
continue to fight hard for pigeons and work to end shoots and we will do it
because these innocent birds desperately need help - and there is no one
else willing to do what has to be done.
Some of us at SHARK have known leaders at HSUS for decades, going back to
when they worked for the Fund for Animals and we used to fight bear hunts in
PA together. In our opinion, once they started making hundreds of thousands
of dollars a year, it became easier and easier to sell out animals instead
of doing the right thing. Perhaps they need to get back onto the killing
field with us so they can look a wounded pigeon in the eye and then say how
selling them out was acceptable.
Take Action: Governor Wolf and the legislature of Pennsylvania must rectify their mistake, and ban pigeon shoots forever:
Click
HERE for contact info for Governor Tom Wolf
PA residents: Click
HERE for contact info for your state representatives
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