LIVE PIGEONS AS TARGETS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25945, 27 October 1949, Page 4

LIVE PIGEONS AS TARGETS

S.P.C.A. OBJECTION

BIRDS TRAPPED IN DUNEDIN STREETS

(New Zealand Press Association.) DUNEDIN, October 26. Several hundred pigeons that had been trapped in Dunedin streets were taken to Berwick and used as live targets at the New Zealand gun dog championships during the Labour Day week-end. it was reported to a meeting yesterday of the Otago branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by the society’s inspector (Mr Ira Grant). Very little cruelty had resulted, Mr Grant said, as only three birds had escaped the volleys of shot fired at each bird from two guns at pointblank range. Members, however expressed concern. Such a. practice was not sporting, they said, and the birds were not given a chance. It was thought possible that injured birds might escape and suffer from their wounds. Such careless shooting of trapped animals was just the same as coursing v;ith live hares, an activity tnat had been condemned by the society, members said.

Members asked 'if clay pigeons could not be used as targets and dead birds employed for retrieving by the ™ s^a tod that according to New Zealand gun dog trial rules live birds had to be used. The meeting decided unanimously to announce that the shooting of trapped game constituted a breach of the society’s code.