Pigeon Shooting For Target Practice Illegal, Says Burris

September 1992

The Herald-News (Joliet, IL)

The Will County State's Attorney's Office was asked earlier this summer to give an opinion as to the continuing legality of shooting of pigeons for target practice.

At that time, the county board was informed that the county did not have the authority to ban this activity on a county-wide basis.

A group of people in the Wilmington area were conducting pigeons shoots for entertainment.

The controversy was stirred by the fact that a state statute regulating pigeon shooting had recently been revoked by the General Assembly. This action caused those on both sides of the debate over killing pigeons as targets to argue about the continuing legality of such actions.

There remains intact, however, section 4.01 of the humane Care for Animals Act which makes it a Class A Misdemeanor for any person to "own, capture, breed, raise or lease any animal" which the person knows was to be killed "for the purpose of sport, wagering or entertainment."

Will County State's Attorney Edward Burmila Jr. contacted the Office of Attorney General Roland Burris in June, asking for an opinion from that office whether the Humane Care for Animals Act prohibited the shooting of live pigeons as targets.

Information presented to Burris' office by Burmila showed that the pigeon shoots are organized events in which shooters pay daily entry fees for the right to participate.

Pigeons that have been raised or captured for this purpose are released from a cage or box one at a time to serve as targets for a shooter. Each shooter is permitted one or two shots to bring the bird down in a defined scoring area around the cage. The shooters compete with one another for cash and other prizes.

Although the events are not advertised publicly or open to the public generally, guests of the participants or hosts are admitted as spectators, sometimes paying admission, and sometimes betting on the outcome.

"It appears that a pigeon shoot of this type would constitute a show, exhibition, program or other activity which involves the intentional killing of animals for sport and entertainment," Burris concluded. He said this would be a violation of section 4.01 of the Humane Care for Animals Act.

Burmila said, "I am gratified the Attorney General's Office views this matter in the same light that I do. I have informed the Sheriff that the shooting of pigeons or any other animals for the purpose of target practice is a Class A Misdemeanor throughout the State of Illinois.

"I am confident that the Sheriff will uphold the law and any arrests that he makes pursuant to this statute will be appropriately prosecuted by this office. The interpretation of this statute is no longer open to question, and I consider the matter of the legality of shooting these animals closed."