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Pigeon shoots––that HSUS said it stopped––continue in Maryland

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Foreground: SHARK founder Steve Hindi, investigator Stu Chaifetz, and pigeon rescued from a shoot. Background: scene of the January 4, 2018 pigeon shoot in Henderson, Maryland.

Why did HSUS misinform us––and you?

by Steve Hindi,  president,  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness

(See also http://www.animals24-7.org/2018/01/24/hsus-president-wayne-pacelle-responds-to-maryland-pigeon-shoot/.)

On Monday, January 15, 2018, I sent an email to Humane Society of the United States president Wayne Pacelle demanding a copy of all HSUS documentation regarding live pigeon shoots around the country. I copied Anna West and Heidi Prescott, as both are employed by HSUS, and are mentioned in the January 15 email to Pacelle.

I demanded documentation from Pacelle because HSUS is not telling the truth about the status of pigeon shoots. In September 2017, Heidi Prescott gave assurances to Animals 24-7,  via West,  that pigeon shoots in Maryland had been stopped.

“On behalf of Heidi Prescott, senior vice president of campaigns at The Humane Society of the United States,”  wrote West,  “We have stopped [pigeon] shoots in California, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas — and most recently secured an attorney general’s opinion in Maryland that will prevent live pigeon shoots from occurring there.”

Hunt club employee shooting escaped pigeons & discussing the pigeon shoot they escaped from.
(From video by SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz.)

SHARK videotaped pigeons being shot

On January 15, 2018, SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz went to a Maryland canned hunt club and filmed the aftermath of a pigeon shoot from a day earlier. Stu also recorded a club employee discussing the shoot at some length, even as the employee went about killing shoot survivors.

This is not the first time that HSUS has put out false information. In the same September statement wherein Prescott claimed HSUS stopped Maryland pigeon shoots, she makes the same claim about North Carolina. But pigeon shoots in North Carolina didn’t stop – they expanded.

HSUS operatives have a long history of making false claims. They often claim credit for either the accomplishments of others, or for “victories” that never occurred at all, as in the case of these pigeon shoots. Other times, HSUS misleads supporters by claiming victories that are in fact backward steps in the effort to improve the treatment of animals.

Pigeon shot on January 4, 2017 at Schrader’s Outdoors in Henderson, Maryland.
(From video by SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz.)

If HSUS will not tell the truth about pigeon shoots in Maryland and North Carolina, there is no reason to believe the organization about pigeon shoots in California, Ohio and Texas.

“Victories” must be real

SHARK is as happy as any group to proclaim a victory, but it is important that the victory be real, and supporters/donors shouldn’t be lied to. In the case of the pigeons, claiming that shoots have ended when they have not means that concerned groups and individuals move on, while the pigeons continue to be slaughtered.

Mr. Pacelle has predictably not responded, and this is further cause for concern If HSUS has nothing to hide, why not let another organization have a look at their documentation? After all, SHARK has had much more success fighting pigeon shoots than has HSUS or any other group.

Pigeons on a burn pile at Schrader’s Outdoors in Henderson, Maryland.
(From video by SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz.)

SHARK knocked out all pigeon shoots in Illinois, knocked out a few shoots over the past few years in Pennsylvania and recently put so much pressure on PA pigeon shoots that they went into hiding altogether. We can’t even find them now, and interestingly, HSUS won’t take part in the search.

Pennsylvania pigeon shoots more secretive than dogfights

Even before driving Pennsylvania’s shoots underground, we had largely won. Through relentless exposure, SHARK forced live pigeon shoots from all day slaughters that occurred in the open with more than a hundred attendees, to relatively brief events with perhaps a dozen killers.

Pennsylvania’s pigeon shoots today are more secretive than dogfights. We have exposed the rich and powerful, and in spite of the shooters’ political connections and their protection by corrupt law enforcement, we’ve sent the killers running for cover.

In 2017 we forced Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe to end his live pigeon shoot fundraisers. By repeatedly doing our job of exposing Inhofe’s egregious killing, we dominated a powerful sitting senator in his own state.

(Beth Clifton collage)

But HSUS just helped to give Pennsylvania pigeon shoots legal cover

Some years back I was a substantial donor to HSUS. Then I wised up. Even after that, for years SHARK and I still tried to work with HSUS, but the enormous level of empty talk versus real action was too much to deal with. Now, I just want HSUS to get out of the way, so we can move forward. Instead, HSUS recently helped push through a law in Pennsylvania that actually gives pigeon shooters legal cover.

(See Is burying pigeons alive legal in Pennsylvania? and Did HSUS & Humane Pennsylvania sacrifice pigeons to NRA demand?)

Anyone who knows about SHARK knows we don’t have marketers and publicists, or even offices. We don’t wear suits, and we don’t spend our time, money and efforts on galas and parties. We are field investigators, or journalists if you will. We are documenters who have had enormous successes on a shoestring budget.

Merritt & Beth Clifton

SHARK wants to end live pigeon shoots, and the pigeons want to live, so there’s no time to waste. We want HSUS documentation so we can cut through the propaganda, and see what still needs to be done to usher live pigeon shoots into the dustbin of history.

Please help us continue speaking truth to power: 

http://www.animals24-7.org/donate/

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Comments

  2. A. St-Laurent says

    I don’t even know what to say about the HSUS at this point. They seem to have completely lost their way. These shoots are an abomination, and speak to a complete lack of feeling for sentient creatures that I can’t help suspecting reflects a more general deficit of compassion and empathy. Many thanks to SHARK (—time for a donation, I think) for their work on this, and to Animals 24-7 for bringing it to our attention.

  3. Jamaka Petzak says

    I know for a fact that there is at least one pigeon shoot ongoing in California, because I know someone who participates in it. I do not know the location, and of course I abhor the fact that this is the case, but I do know several people for whom hunting is a family “tradition”. As for HSUS, I stopped donating to them years ago and will never do so again because I disagree with their position on free-roaming cats as last stated by them, and do not trust them.

  4. Rich McLellan, M.D. says

    I think most street level activists know that HSUS takes credit for their efforts. I personally have been witness to multiple instances of deception and lies on behalf of HSUS and it is generally acknowledged by those with a softer voice. It frustrates all of us who do not have big propaganda operations that HSUS does not consult with us on local issues, distorts its role in achievements and has been a party to some very troubling legislation. My experience with HSUS came early and so I always knew that they and PETA were trouble. PETA is much improved but I have always advised donors to give HSUS a pass. I have retired from animal work now but your research reassures me that nothing has changed in over 25 years.

  5. Cheryl Frassetto says

    This is barbaric!! Doesn’t anyone st HSUS have any compassion? Is it all about the donations they collect!!! Give a damn!!!!

  6. Merritt Clifton says

    While appeals from the Humane Society of the U.S. often give the misleading impression that it is a hands-on rescue organization, in competition with thousands of smaller organizations for which hands-on work is the primary focus, HSUS was incorporated in 1954 to be a national advocacy voice for animals, as it mostly is, not a hands-on “rescue” in any sense of the word. As of 1954 the terms “humane society” and “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals” were still widely recognized to mean what they originally meant: a “humane society” mostly did advocacy and education, on behalf of disadvantaged humans as well as animals, while an “SPCA” did humane law enforcement on a constabulary basis. The notion that either a “humane society” or “SPCA” is (or should be) synonymous with “animal shelter” or “rescue,” or do the same work, has largely been manufactured by fundraisers over the past 60-odd years, as the public in the direct mail and electronic eras has proved to be much more responsive to frequent appeals on behalf of individual animals than to the more general, mission-focused annual, semi-annual, or quarterly appeals that furnished the economic wherewithal for humane work as recently as the mid-1960s.

  7. Ian says

    I stopped supporting HSUS a few years ago when they wouldn’t take a stand (in a response letter, which BTW is taking a stand against animals) against Whole (Cruel) Foods adding rabbits to their list of animals to be slaughtered and sold. They continue to be a disappointment in their zeal for donations instead of animal welfare/rights.