Will County at a loss to end pigeon 'shoots'

Wednesday, June 3, 1992

The Chicago Tribune

By Bob Merrifield

Will County officials were told Tuesday that there is nothing they can do to stop live pigeon shoots near Wilmington, despite protests by animal right advocates.

After learning from the Will County state's attorney that counties without home-rule powers have no say in such events, members of the County Board's Committee on Health, Education and Aging said they were personally opposed to the shoots and may ask the board as a whole to publicly condemn the practice.

Object of the controversy is the periodic staging of pigeon shoots on private land at Blodgett and Kelly roads northeast of Wilmington.

Opponents of the shots, which were held last November and in April, contend thousand of pigeons are slaughtered each time the event is held. They say children follow the shooting parties to collect the dead birds, which are burned as garbage.

Neither the sponsors of the event or the owners of the land could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Live pigeon shoots, considered to be the forerunner of trap shooting, are popular in some rural locations and foreign countries such as Mexico. The birds, which often are considered pests, are trapped to be released later and shot.

Those rigidly controlled events often involve high-stakes wagering.

While county officials were told they could not step in on what was basically a conservation questions, Assistant State's Atty. John Urban offered opponents some hope. He cited a state law that forbids owning, training or breeding an animal that is to be killed for sport, wagering or entertainment.

According to Steve Hindi, a Plano businessman who is leading the fight against the pigeon shoots, many of the birds in this instance are bred and raised only to be shot.

"The whole thing is disgusting, from beginning to end," Hindi said.

"What makes it so different from hunting [is] these people just step up to the line and blast away. It's blatant cruelty to animals," said Hindi, who is the president of the Fox Valley Animal Protectors in DuPage County.

State's Atty. Edward Burmila Jr. said state law gives opponents of the pigeon shoots "something to hang their hats on."

"It means they could make out a complaint with a police department, and we would review it [for possible prosecution].

"But what needs to happen is for the General Assembly to get its act together," Burmila added, noting that state lawmakers fueled the controversy last year when the repealed a section of the law that granted licenses to shoot pigeons.

That step was taken by some to mean that Illinois was declaring open season on pigeons because no license was required, while others contend that it outlaws the shoots.