Animal Rights Whack Jobs on Parade

Protesters are getting more bold about protesting pigeon shoots at clubs that still do them, even in rural areas. While I have no interest personally in pigeon shooting, I am not at all sympathetic to the crackpots that are pushing for the ban. My main reason for opposing a ban is that it would also ban hunting dog training (which can involve releasing birds from cages, and shooting at them, as part of flushing and retriever training). Here’s what I’m talking about from the comments to this article:

Pigeons are gentle creatures who deserve far better than this. The real “pests” are the hunters; too bad they don’t shoot each other and wipe themselves from the face of the earth.

Pigeons are disease carrying vermin, and are pests in most places they infest. Let’s not get crazy here. Standard control practices in cities is to gather them all up and gas them. If you gave me the choice, I think I’d probably rather be shot at, where I at least had a chance to get away. Here’s another:

Hunting is a despicable “sport” but at least the animals in the wild have a chance of survival. The only chance a bird in a box has is if the “hunter” is a ridiculously poor shot! Animals that are not domesticated all face the possibility of starving, freezing, or to be eaten by a predator. However, a bird that is used as a live target for a thrill-seeking human does not die a humane death.

That pretty much shows where enabling these people with a political victory is going to lead, and also how little they understand about this. The pigeons have a pretty good chance of survival. Most people I’ve talked to who have done pigeon shooting say it’s much harder than hitting a clay bird, and you’re going to miss far more often.

The Canadian geese in NJ who poop on golf courses are gassed in 18 wheeler trucks paid for by the state, the deer of Valley Forge National Park that will be using sharp shooters to kill deer that come right up to you, and countless other wasteful kills, These are not solutions to control populations, sterilization or birth control for the deer is an easy solution. I love animals too much to see them starving in the wild, even though I am an animal rights advocate I will not let my beliefs or opinions be more important then animals suffering.

As someone else, with more common sense pointed out:

So building a trap (or more accurately many of them), setting bait, regularly checking them, transporting the animal to a clinic, sedating a wild animal, cutting the animal open, removing the necessary reproductive organs, sewing the animal back up, caging the animal so it can recover, providing after care to ensure the animal is healthy and then driving the animal back to where it was caught is an “easy solution.” Wow. I suppose if you want to financially pay for a such a stupid system as this, I am all for but please don’t force reasonable minded tax payers to fund something because you are opposed to nature because that is completely ridiculous.

It’ll probably be cheaper than that. They’ll do it in the field, inject the thing with antibiotics, and send it on its way and hope for the best. Sure, some percentage of them will die of a painful infection, but it’ll make these people feel better than no one is shooting them. And besides, it’s a well known fact that all the deer sterilized in Valley Forge National Park will respect the park’s boundaries, and not wander out into the surrounding countryside to get knocked up.

Pigeon shooting is going to be a very tricky issue for us in this state, because it’s going to be used to hold up other parts of our agenda. The votes, I’d say, are probably there to pass a ban if it ever came to the floor. Their hope of our opponents is going to be that we violate the “no one goes under the bus” rule and trade a pigeon shooting ban for something else we want. The temptation will be to do that. I’m not sure we’ll be able to avoid it. But if you give them the victory, you’ll be enabling the people appearing in the first comments, and giving up the ground to allow them to proceed to the next step.