Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-02

gushing from their eyes at the end of every
sentence. say these people may be In earnest,
but also venture the surmise that 1t is safe to
bet a superfne suit to a paper collar that there
is deal of hypocrisy in the movement and
also any amount of inconsistency. To come to
the point make the emphatic statement that
there is infinitely more cruelty to animals prac-
tised by many of these opponents to pigeon
shooting in a day than there is among club
shooters in a year. To be sure, none of us
would for moment defend cruelty to animals,
assumes to tell us that we are really butchers
and iends, the line is drawn.
Who Are the Torturerse
Now, let us examine these alleged cruelties
of pigeon shooting and see whether or not
there is any Just reason for these very, very
humane people to sing so many heartrending
songs about. We will take gun club, say the
Heron Hill Club, the members OF which shoot
at live pigeons Now. to shoot at pigeons is a
somewhat costly luxury in sport hence as a
rule, club members who pay 81 a shot for
pigeon shooting are of the very best class of
shooters. 1t follows, then, that the bird is
invariably killed without feeling pang. True,
there are winged" birds but in every instance,
as soon as they drop, they are killed. 1t is.
therefore, clear that the birds used at pigeon
shooting are. of all fowl, put to death in the
most expeditions way, and before they are shot
they are Kept in the best possible style so that
they may fly the more vigorously. Now, as
contrast to this, let us take a party of people,
say prominent members of this anti-pigeon
shooting movement, who annually go hunting
and fishing in summer time. Away they
go to the streams ard mountains in hope
of killing either fish, fowl or beast
Their aim is so uncertain that were they shoot
ing at pile of hay there should be to l on
the pile. However, with their guns they blaze
away at everything in sight and wound, MAIN
and kill. But as a rule they don't kill those
poor dumb animals at which they shoot, their
I1F, .1,r Ill, H. ~ 80,
be wounded and then these humane people
will simply tear out piece by piece the ami
mails remaining life. Why club pigeon shoot
ing is an absolute luxury to the pigeon COM
pared to the tortures inflicted on dumb ami
mails by those Once-a-year sportsmen. Just
imagine the agonies of a hooked game
fish that has to be tortured in the
water sometimes an hour before it is
and the leaders of all these Peck
snifian movements like to fish; certainly they
do. But to reduce the question to one of first
principles the opposition to pigeon shooting is
absurd Certainly there have been some most
outrageous cruelties surrounding pigeons. L
have seen, and often, birds treated in the most
cruel and revolving manner before being put
into the trap, but that is only incidental to the
shooting and can be prevented. 1t has been
stopped, and the persons who caused its aboli-
tion were wise people because they did not try
to kill the business entirely. but only attempted
to clear it of Its brutal features Well if it is
not right for an expert shooter to shoot
a pigeon because of the humane
principle it certainly cannot be right for the
old dame of the farm to chop and hack the
head of turkey, or to bleed steer to death.
The truth is nine-tenths of these anti-pIgeon
shooting movements are gotten up for effect or
are prompted by ignorance and vanity. If we
were on MallOek's ideal island and imbued
with all the tastes of the EXTREMIST vegetarian,
we might dispense with the killing of animals
altogether until they became so numerous as to
eat us up, but as long as we live fish. flesh
and fowl it is ridiculous talking about the
cruelty of killing pigeons in the most expert
manner.