LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 10

LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING

PROTEST BY S.P.C.A. EARLY CONSIDERATION OF PETITION Seven hundred and forty pigeons were trapped for shooting in the New Zealand Gun Club’s live bird championships held at Yaldhurst this weekend. About 100 competitors in turn took their marks and fired when a pigeon was on the wing from any one of five traps 28 yards away from the shooting base. Many of the birds were killed at first shot, others needed a second barrel, and maimed birds that escaped were mostly brought down by club scouts round the perimeter. In some cases injured birds were retrieved by a Labrador dog, and their necks were wrung by an official. Protesting about “this blood sport,” the president of the Canterbury branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Miss M. B. Howard, MJP.) said she hoped captive birds shooting and live hare coursing would soon be prohibited. The petition, signed by 22,000 objectors to this kind of sport, which she presented in Parliament last year should soon receive consideration. Miss Howard said that now committees of the House had been appointed they would deal with petitions left over from last year immediately, and she expected this one to receive attention within a fortnight or three weeks. Mr T. Glenn, president of the New Zealand Gun Club, and Mr R. S. Taylor, president of the Christchurch Gun Club, said at the national meeting on Saturday that this was now the only live bird shoot held by the organisation, 99 per cent, of competitions being clay bird shooting. They mentioned that pigeons were becoming a pest to farmers and hundreds were killed by poisoning. Most of the birds used in the competition were trapped in country districts. They were not discarded racing pigeons.

CHAMPIONSHIP WON BY R. MAHER R. Maher was the winner of the New Zealand 28-yard rise championship which was held on Saturday, the final day of the New Zealand Gun Clubs’ championships. The championships were held at the Christchurch Gun Club’s grounds at Yaldhurst, and 126 competitors took part in the final event - The following seven shot possibles: R. Maher (Ohingaiti), W. B. Telford (Waiwera), L. Eden (Motukarara), R. Gunn (Hastings), S. Inwood (Christchurch), W. J. Davey (Ngaitia), and W. Anderson (Mfethven). R. Maher won in the seventh round of the shootoff, in which W. B. Telford was second and L. Eden third.