Pennsylvanians, contact your state legislators on that day and urge them to end live pigeon shoots by voting yes to bills numbered H.B. 2130 in the House of Representatives and S.B. 1150 in the Pennsylvania Senate. Also urge legislators to vote yes to Amendment 8209 to Senate Bill 151 and Amendment 8210 to House Bill 1543, to end the use of animals launched from traps or tethered for target practice.

If you don't live in Pennsylvania, contact everyone you know in that state and urge them to call or write their legislators on Sept. 22 in support of these bills.

Click here for more information and to find your Pennsylvania legislators and a sample letter you can use to send to your Pennsylvania legislators.

Pennsylvania is the only state where live pigeon shoots are held openly.  The pigeons are netted in cities and sold to brokers that sell them to the organized shoots. The birds can be held for months before a shoot in cramped cages and often lack adequate food, water or other care. 

At the shoots, the pigeons are placed in box traps that are lined up in front of the shooter. The pigeons are then released one at a time to allow the shooter who is standing only 30 yards away to shoot them with a shotgun. This is considered a "sport".

The birds suffer terribly during this ordeal; many are injured rather than killed outright. In fact, it is estimated 70% are not killed immediately but left to suffer. Sometimes people including children are sent to collect the dead and dying animals; any found alive are slammed to the ground or their heads are snapped off, and they are then thrown into a barrel. Some birds are just left where they fall to die painful deaths.   

H.B. 2130/S.B. 1150 would amend Pennsylvania's animal cruelty law, 18 Pa. Stat. 5511, to make it illegal to use any live animals including birds as targets. Anyone who participates or organizes, operates or conducts a shoot using live animals as targets would be guilty of a summary offense. Amendment 8209 to Senate Bill 151 and Amendment 8210 to House Bill 1543 would also make use of live animals as targets illegal, whether launched from traps or tethered.

In 1999 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the case of Hulsizer v. Labor Day Committee, Inc. found a humane agent, in that case from Pennsylvania SPCA, could bring a claim that pigeon shoots violated the state's animal cruelty laws. The case was remanded and the host of the shoot settled the case by closing the shoot. There have been other cases filed by humane agents, but the shoots continue. The current animal cruelty laws are simply too weak to bar this practice.

We need your help to pass these bills to end the suffering of these animals.

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