Anti-pigeon-shoot group finds price is right to fight

Animal-rights activists, buoyed by the donation of $1 million to their cause by former game-show host Bob Barker, say that the money will go to help fight a Bucks County gun club known for its live pigeon shoots.

The Philadelphia Gun Club, located on the Delaware River, in Bensalem Township, is "secretive" about the shoots, and protesters don't know when the next shoot will be but plan to be there to voice displeasure, Steve Hindi, founder of an anti-cruelty group called SHARK, said late last week.

Barker, now 86, said in an interview Thursday that he also will take an active role in fighting pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. Barker said that he would come to Harrisburg himself, if necessary, to urge the state Legislature to pass a law ending what he termed the "horrendous" practice of using live birds for target practice. Barker, former host of the TV game show "The Price is Right," and a longtime supporter of animal causes, said that Pennsylvania is the only state in which live pigeon shoots still are legal.

Leo Holt, president of the Philadelphia Gun Club, which dates to 1877, and is said to have a wealthy clientele, declined to comment after learning of Barker's $1 million gift, citing ongoing litigation in the case.

Club attorney Sean Corr also said that pigeon shoots are legal in Pennsylvania - although bills to ban them are in committee in both houses of the Legislature.

Corr said that the club would "continue lawful activity on private property." The shoots are held on Saturdays but the date of the next one has not been made public, according to activists.

"We do emphasize that these birds have been trapped as pests and are scheduled for extermination," Corr said. Although animal activists dispute this, Corr said that "the club follows all state-mandated euthanasia procedures," as determined by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

"Contributing $1 million to save pigeons which are destined for extermination at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are in need of food, clothing and shelter in Haiti, we feel, is eloquent testament to the extremism of Mr. Barker and his associates," Corr said.

Barker said that a California animal activist alerted him to the work of SHARK, an Illinois-based organization that has been operating on a shoestring budget. SHARK is an acronym for Showing Animals Respect and Kindness.

Hindi said that shoots might continue "out behind the barn" in other states, but that Pennsylvania is the only place where live pigeon shoots are legal.

Although his organization is targeting the Philadelphia Gun Club, Hindi said that pigeon shoots also take place in Berks and Dauphin counties.

Hindi, a former hunter and fisherman, decided to fight the gun-club shoots after the notorious shoots in Hegins, Pa. - where children were used to wring the necks of wounded birds - drew massive demonstrations before they finally were halted in 1999.

Many of the birds wounded in the ongoing Pennsylvania shoots do not die immediately, Hindi said, but fly off and die a lingering death nearby.

Elissa Katz, an attorney advocating for a legal ban on the pigeon shoots, said that a cease-and-desist notice was filed by the Bensalem Township solicitor in 2002 but that the Philadelphia Gun Club shoots apparently resumed intermittently in recent years.

"It's always been our contention that what is going on at the Philadelphia Gun Club is animal cruelty," Katz said. "I see wounded birds land in the river, try to get to shore and drown."

Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran said that the township failed to further pursue the pigeon-shoot issue after the county district-attorney's office determined that the shoots were not covered under current animal-cruelty statutes.

Because the birds are not protected under state law, the shoots can go on, Harran said.

Barker said he hoped that his gift would help to "build enough awareness of what's going on and really get some interest in stopping it."

Regarding Philadelphia Gun Club members, Barker said: "To think that these so-called socialites are participating in something like this is just utterly amazing.

"Shooting pigeons for pleasure is anti-social behavior. . . . We all know the good people of Pennsylvania would never allow a puppy shoot."