In 1996, the Fund for Animals gathered 27 certificates signed by producers, screenwriters and actors, including Alec Baldwin and Alicia Silverstone, urging Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to stop the event. The governor declined, saying he did not want to interfere in local decisions. In 1995, the Animal Liberation Front freed 500 pigeons destined for the shoot from their cages. Humane officer Hulsizer will move forward with the lawsuit to ensure that no pigeon shoots are held in Hegins in the future. Attorney for the Coleman Memorial Bird Shoot, James Diehl, compares the actions of the humane officers to those of a town police officer making arrests outside their own borders.
Many people believe the animal rights activists are misdirected.
The protestors have got to get their act together and go elsewhere, he wrote. It boggles me. To actually spend time, fighting against a little town or community that no one has ever heard of just because pigeons are being killed. I think that the protestors can make more with their time. But Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals is satisfied with the results of her group's efforts.