NYC Pigeons Trapped, Kidnapped and Shot for Sport, Group Says

[onehandle]

For years there have been rumors. Unafraid of human contact and lured by scattered seeds, New York City pigeons are trapped in nets, thrown in the back of vans and whisked away. Just where they go is unclear. Some say they’re used in voodoo ceremonies or as food in restaurants.

Earlier this month, in a letter to Pennsylvania lawmakers, the New York City Bar claims that many pigeons are captured and transported, without food or water, to middlemen in Pennsylvania. From there they are sold to shooting ranges for use in live trap shooting competitions where participants fire shotguns at live pigeons vaulted into the air.

“Because there is a constant demand for birds to supply these events, the trap shoots induce unlawful poaching in nearby New York City,” the attorneys’ group wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Pennsylvania state Senate and House of Representatives earlier this month.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania are considering a ban on pigeon shooting statewide. The New York City Bar wrote the letter in support of the legislation.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/05/24/citys-pigeons-are-captured-shot-for-sport-lawyers-group-says/

[aquart]

1. Well, if they got a gun they gotta have something to shoot.

Right? Because they're all such SPORTSMEN.

[joeybee12]

4. What good is the second amendment if you don't get your daily dose

of blood sport? Assholes.

[sui generis]

5. but but they're taking care of a nuisance problem

Heroically sacrificing themselves on behalf of humanity. good thing they haven't discovered puppy mills yet.

[queenjane]

2. Is there nothing "humans" won't do to other creatures??

And 99% of the time, it seems, it's for "fun".

I am deeply ashamed of my species.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

3. I enjoy shooting clay pigeons

Never had a crack at a live one.
Although birds do occasoinally fly across the clay range that people take shots at.

Heck, I once saw a deer prance across the range.
My guess is that deer didn't make it long once hunting season cemmenced.

Live pigeon shooting (for fun) seems like uneccesary creulty, imo.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. I have had pet pigeons.

They are incredibly fun to have around. This news makes me very sad.

That's some "sport" they have there. :mad: :puke:

[SPedigrees]

17. Illegal netting of feral pigeons in NYC has gone on for years now.

I have a pet pigeon too. She will probably outlive me. Meet Hedwig the 2nd.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. Very handsome birdy!

Nice cage habitat you he/she has there. One of my guys was named Sir Humps-A-Lot. He would "romance" anything. And I do mean anything! The cat, a Tribble. the paper towel holder ... his "Dance of Love" was a thing to behold.

[SPedigrees]

28. It's not hard to see why pigeons are so ubiquitous.

Your Sir Humps-A-Lot's behavior and my Hedwig sitting on eggs for weeks at a time every month or so over the 6 years I've had her, in the vain hope that one will hatch, explain why there are so many feral pigeons in cities everywhere! They have a one track mind!

[Mojorabbit]

20. I have a ring neck dove

that is 23 years old. The vet said she had ovarian cancer 6 years ago and only had a few months to live. Ha!

[SPedigrees]

29. May your dove live even longer and continue to prosper! nt

[onehandle]

50. Cute. Pigeons are really beautiful. And the variety of colors and patterns are amazing. nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. My Dad had carrier pigeons as pets ala Marlon Brandon on a Brooklyn rooftop. My brother

befriended a pigeon and it would hang out in and out of his apartment and when my brother had to leave Manhattan to Queens, the pigeon followed and found him. He was adorable.

And yes, this is horrible!

[SPedigrees]

30. That's a neat story, Ommm! Usually pigeons stick close to their home territory

so your brother and this bird must have had quite an attachment for it to follow him.

[FarCenter]

7. Pigeons are flying rats

[aquart]

8. No. They're birds. You shouldn't have slept during biology class.

[Renew Deal]

23. Bullshit!

:D

[blondeatlast]

12. Might wanna get those eyes examined, there, sporto. nt

[Renew Deal]

24. Since when did DUers lose their sense of humor?

"Flying rats" is a well known nickname for pigeons.

[SPedigrees]

32. Not all of us have! I have a bumpersticker on my car

that says "Pigeons are NOT rats with Wings!" I've had people tell me it's the first pro-pigeon bumpersticker they've ever seen. I reply "Don't ask!"

[PSzymeczek]

36. Bats

are rats with wings. :)

[petronius]

43. And rats are sewer-dwelling pigeons - it's all pretty simple, really

:)

[jgraz]

14. Ignorant, stupid statement worthy of a teabagger.

Please educate yourself so you don't embarrass yourself further.

[AnArmyVeteran]

35. FarCenter, read my post in this thread and maybe you can see some value in living creatures...

I wish you the best in understanding...

[X_Digger]

9. Canned hunts are never sporting.

I used to hunt dove every labor day, but there's so little meat for so much work that it's not worth it.

[onehandle]

11. My dad hunted dove a few times when I was a kid.

It was greasy and yes, hardly any meat.

He didn't think it was worth it and gave me his dove call to play with, which I still have.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

27. There are gray doves here where I live and the last thing I think of when I look at them is

food. They aren't all that big.

[PSzymeczek]

37. We have white-winged doves, mourning doves,

and Inca doves that come to our yard to eat from the seed block. Some of them are getting really fat. But, I don't think of killing them, either for sport or for food.

[Tesha]

48. We *USED* to have a *LOT* of mourning doves.

These days, we have a family of red-tailed hawks that hang out over
our heads, on our lawn, and in our bird-bath(s).

'Think there's any connection?

Tesha

[jberryhill]

10. Urban Birds Given Free Travel And A Day In The Country!

It's all about the headline.

[KittyWampus]

15. Bravo! You should do editorial cartoons.

[jberryhill]

18. ...or the Fox News Chiron

BP Donates Free Oil To Gulf State Residents!

Urban Child Adopts Stray Bullet, Defends Second Amendment Rights!

[Blue_Tires]

13. they could at least be productive and start skeet shooting roaches and rats

[blondeatlast]

16. Don't give them ideas, please. nt

[Blue-Jay]

33. I can imagine someone putting a rat in a clay pigeon launcher.

Hilarious!

[PSzymeczek]

39. Too funny! That made me think of

the rat being launched from the machine and saying, "I can see my house from heeere!"

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. "...trapped and shot for sport." About as "sporting" as a hammer vs snail match.

[The Straight Story]

22. Kidnap? Wouldn't it be birdnap? (nt)

[Renew Deal]

47. I find your anti-pigeon humor crass and I am OUTRAGED!

:argh:


:rofl:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. Trapping and sending pigeons from NY to PA seems an awful lot of work

to go through, doesn't it?

[SPedigrees]

31. They use big nets, get a whole flock at once.

I'm willing to bet these "hunters" don't even eat the birds they shoot. Not very sportsmanlike to be sure.

[AnArmyVeteran]

34. My older brother & his friend slaughtered my pet pigeons when I was just a kid.

When I was a teenager I raised homing pigeons. I had about 20 of all them, each one different in color, but all beautiful. I often took them miles away and let them go and they would always return home. But I could no longer take care of them because we were moving, so I thought I could take them to a place far enough away they couldn't find their way back. A pigeon can always survive in the wild very easily. I didn't have a truck needed to hold a spare cage I had to transport them, by brother's friend did, and my brother and his friend said they would drive me. Then when we got about 25 miles away we stopped by a big field. I was about to open the door, get out of the truck and the let my pet pigeons go free. But my older brother and his friend both got out of the truck first and then they uncovered a tarp in the back of the truck and grabbed two rifles, and as I looked on in horror, they shot and killed all of my pets inside the cage.

None of my pleading would stop them and I felt so much guilt to have been a part of their deaths. Even though I didn't do anything to hurt them I felt horrible because I couldn't stop them from being slaughtered. I trusted my brother and his friend and they betrayed me and slaughtered the pets I had for years.

Both turned out to be right wing conservative extremists. My brother is also a 'Christian'. He is also extremely selfish without the ability to feel other people's feelings.

I know all conservatives are not bad people. It seems as if most are ignorant, but they often mean well, even if they are gullible enough to listen to radio hosts who market nothing but hatred. But my brother and my older sister are both conservative extremists, racists and Christians. Now that I lost my last parent I no longer have to see or hear from them. Being separated from them has been so refreshing because they are such toxic people.

Anyway, the story in the OP opened up this memory I've had for all these years and I wanted to share it in hopes it might help to purge me of the feelings I had that horrible day. I wonder if others have experienced similar abuses when they were kids.

Thank you very much for listening...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

38. Holy shit.

I am so sorry this happened to you! :( What they did is unconscionable. I really don't know what to say. :cry:

[SPedigrees]

42. That is the saddest story ever!

I too have some ex-relatives that I've not seen in years and never will again.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your pets. At least it was a quick end for them. Feral pigeons typically only live 2 years or so, and it is a hard life, so it is possible that they were spared pain and a lingering death at the end. RIP poor birds,

[flvegan]

40. Entertainment for idiots.

[AnArmyVeteran]

41. Most hunting is just assassination of an innocent animal by cowards...

[X_Digger]

44. Psst.. your ignorance is showing..

You might want to tuck it back in.

[AnArmyVeteran]

45. No, not at all... Most hunting is nothing but cowardly assassination.

I hear of deer hunters paying thousands for a deer lease, then getting in their warm deer blind above feed corn planted all around and all they have to do is point their weapon at a deer 10-15 feet away and start blasting away. There are 'hunting' businesses where 'hunters' go to shoot animals that are thrown up in the air with their wings clipped so while they're just flopping around trying to fly they get murdered by bloodthirsty cowards. That isn't hunting. It's as challenging as going to a meat counter in a grocery store and blasting away at the meat counter.

The only way hunting isn't assassination is if a hunter only used weapons on par with the animal. Until they do that they are nothing but cowardly assassins. I'm not tucking anything back in because I am not ignorant at all. I find it almost humorous how 'hunters' spend thousands of dollars on clothing, deer blinds, deer leases, high powered rifles, precision scopes, and oh yeah, don't forget that bottle of whisky. Hunting my ass. It's worse than assassination. It's the worst form of cowardice.

How about going hunting without all of high tech murdering machines? And then maybe you might have a more realistic view of the 'beloved' sport of assassination.

If someone has an impulse to kill there is something internally wrong with them.

[X_Digger]

46. Most hunters I know use the meat to supplement protein

The people in Southwest Virginia where I come from are mostly poor white trash. Hunting is how many of them have meat during the winter.

We took off three weeks in November every year, for deer (bow, muzzle loader, rifle) then turkey season. The meat we got lasted well into April, sometimes May, if we could afford to have it ground and mixed with cheap chuck. No deer leases or expensive blinds. George Washington National forest in Bath County, Va. $4/night for a camping spot.

"Cowardly Assassination" my ass.

[AnArmyVeteran]

49. I have no problem with hunting at all. But I don't like people who just like to kill for fun.

I find it disturbing how a lot of people love to celebrate the killing, mounting heads of animals, carrying them around on their car hoods to show off the dead bodies or getting a deer with the biggest antlers.

The way you are doing it is okay. But I have no problem with 'hunting' as long as it's a semi-fair fight. Ideally, I'd like to see a hunter tackle wild animals with just their hands. But if humans insisted on being armed, then I wish the animals were armed too :). It's only fair if you want to call it hunting.

If you're interested, read a great book ( or see the movie ), "The Old Man and the Sea". I won't be a spoiler to tell you how it ends, but it's something you might enjoy. It's sad, but it is a beautiful story and anyone who hunts should read or see it. It will certainly give you new perceptions and insights.

When I use the word cowardly assassins I thought I described what I meant in my previous post. Remember when Cheney shot his friend in his face. They were throwing up birds right in front of them to be shot, or murdered. Cheney and friend were too damned lazy to even move. They had caged birds thrown up right in front of their guns. I guess one bird was thrown to close to Cheney's friend because Dickie boy blew his face off. BTW, Cheney was a coward during Vietnam and he is still a coward. Anyone who 'hunts' like that is a cowardly assassin.

Palin 'hunts' from a helicopter mowing down terrified wolves. That isn't hunting either. It's brutal, cowardly assassination. And I could never trust anyone who lusted for the kill like Cheney or Palin.

Okay, I gotta go now. I need to go to the grocery store and pick up a couple of steaks :)

All the best...

(btw, I hope you don't think I was calling you a cowardly assassin because I wasn't.)

[X_Digger]

52. Just be careful with generalizations like 'most'.

I've read many of Hemingway's works (Farewell to Arms, Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls.) Honestly, I love his use of language, but his style irks me. Maybe it's just close enough to modern usage to make the differences stand out more. An older work can be given its own voice of its time. I have the same problem with Faulkner, though, so maybe it's just me.

[SPedigrees]

51. Clearly you've never frozen your butt off in a deer blind

out in the woods day after day without a chance of a shot. There is a world of difference between a canned hunt and a real one.

Cheney and Palin are both morons, and both give hunters a bad name.

My grandfather hunted ducks, deer, and numerous other legal game. I grew up eating grass fed venison and all sorts of game birds thanks to his efforts, and I know the idea of hunting Cheney or Palin-style would have sickened him.