Locally, animal rights extremists have been targeting a gun club that hosts pigeon shoots near Philadelphia. Â The PR problems this creates for the community are another issue to debate another day. Â Today, it’s about the legal issues.
Pigeon shoots are legal in Pennsylvania. Â There’s no doubt about it, and the legislature hasn’t made any moves (so far) to seriously look at banning it. Â (There are bills introduced, but no real action has been taken on them.) Â However, the fact that it’s a legal activity hasn’t stopped a local official from trying to clog our courts with charges against the gun club. Â Fortunately, our county DA is willing to stand up for shooters.
District Attorney David Heckler has asked the court to dismiss animal cruelty charges against the Philadelphia Gun Club and instructed pigeon shooters there to make a $200 donation to the Bucks County SPCA for a wounded bird that wasn’t immediately killed by hunters.
At Heckler’s request, Bensalem District Judge Len Brown said he will no longer consider the June 18 complaint filed by Humane Society officer Johnna Seeton.
Seeton, a court appointed officer, alleges that pigeon shoots at the Bensalem gun club violate animal cruelty laws. But Heckler said, “the shooting of live pigeons is unquestionably legal.”
The district attorney said he perceived the citation was “motivated by a desire to discourage live pigeon shoots themselves, despite the fact that the Pennsylvania Legislature has repeatedly and specifically declined to outlaw this activity.”
The animal rights nutcases are outraged by the dismissal and for being called out for their tactics – attempting to use police power to regulate something that is perfectly legal just because they personally don’t like the activity. Â So now they have resorted to claiming the DA has been bought by the gun club.
Their evidence? Â The attorney representing the club once made a donation to the local Republican Party long before this case ever came up. Â The DA is a Republican. Â Don’t you see the obvious corruption involved? Â They are Republicans! Â And one Republican donated to a Republican group which means that all Republican politicians are now corrupt! Â It’s so damn obvious to them…
Unfortunately, this abuse of the system and blatantly false allegations of corruption are being funded by Bob Barker. Â If these are the sort of tactics he endorses, then I’m going to cheer every time something bad happens on the boat he donated (well, donated the funds to buy) for Whale Wars. Â (Who am I kidding? Â I already cheer every time something goes wrong. Â It usually comes after the laughing.)
This is the reason, as far as animal groups go, I only give to local shelters not affiliated with any national organization or to animal rescue groups. When I do those kinds of donations, I prefer giving supplies to cash. I encourage everyone to do the same.
Despite their propaganda with tear jerking images to the contrary, money donated to the national organizations does not end up putting kibble in the bowls at local shelters.
I was wondering how those morons could afford that boat.
Here’s a video on animal rights: http://meat.org
Thanks larry. That video made me hungry. I thin I will grill a steak and read my hunting annual.
Yum! Chicken for dinner, maybe some crab cakes tomorrow, and salmon yesterday. I just need to defrost some of the filets we have in the freezer and we’ll have all of the major animal covered. Except for pork. I’ll go stock up on some this week.