His night in jail was for the birds: Group now seeks law to protect pigeons

April 22, 1992

The Herald-News (Joliet, IL)

By Lea B. Kerr

Steven Hindi spent a night in the Will County Jail last November because of his convictions.

His concerns about the maiming and killing of pigeons at a private shoot near Wilmington led to the disorderly conduct arrest.

Now Hindi and several fellow activists opposed to wildlife cruelty are shooting back.

Hindi was arrested Nov. 25 for reportedly shouting obscenities at participants in the pigeon shoot near Blodgett and Kelly roads, a mile east of the Will-Grundy line.

He posted bond the next day. At a Dec. 27 bench trial, Associate judge Edwin Grabiec acquitted Hindi, 37, of Plano, a member of the Fox Valley Animal Protectors.

There was testimony during the trial that the birds not killed by the shotgun pellet blasts were stepped on and mutilated by children who came there with parents.

Now, Hindi and supporters like Nancy Piper and her husband, Kevin, of new Lennox, and Sherill Vandervort of the Will County Humane Society, want the Will County Board to stop the slaughter of pigeons bred to be targets.

The request for a county law was made Tuesday to the board’s Health, Aging and Education Committee. Chairman Kerry Sheridan, R-Shorewood, has asked State’s Attorney Edward Burmila jr. if the county can ban such events on private property. Sheridan hopes to have an answer by May 19 for the committee to consider a recommendation for board action.

After seeing a videotape the activists took at the shoot near Wilmington, county board member Charles Cain, D-Joliet, said he was “appalled and thought such barbaric days were long since over.”

The film showed boys about 8 to 14 years old tearing heads and wings off dying birds and stomping on others before returning the remains to the adults.

Pigeons are not an endangered species in Illinois. The Department of Conservation no longer requires sponsors to get permits. It once did.

When a permit was issued for the November shoot at Carpy’s Cove near Wilmington, the department refused to identify who got it or the site. Carol Knowles, a department spokesman, told the Herald-News the Freedom of Information Act did not apply since the shoots were on private property. Participants were notified by flyers distributed to selected people.

One of those flyers was found by a high school student. She showed it to a teacher who gave the information to a person involved in wildlife welfare, who then contacted Hindi.

Wilmington Police Chief Frank Lyons and John McSweeney, who got the then-required state permit for the pigeon shoot, reported a disturbance by protesters. Lyons said the property owner, Edward Arambasich, asked the protesters to leave. They did. But Hindi returned and was arrested.

“When they arrested me at the shoot, I could have bailed myself out, but I refused,” said Hindi. “I said, ‘If those pigeon shooters really want me in (jail), fine. I will stay to make people aware of what was going on’ I don’t know when, I don’t know how, I don’t know where. But we are going to shut them down."