Views on shoot are mixed

April 18, 1991

The Journal Star (Peoria, IL)

By Lori Timm

CANTON – While a few Fulton County resident joined a protest against a live pigeon shoot Thursday, others said Donald Holford's annual contest is no reason to get up in arms.

"I think most people around here feel the same – if it is legal, and if you don't like it you should change the law," said Janet Lawver, a waitress at Four Seasons Bowl, just south of Holford's farm.

"I've talked to many people from all over the United States who came here for it, and they all said how professional and well-run it is," Lawver said.

Some people said protecting pigeons is, in fact, aiding a nuisance.

Majes Lala of Springfield, who used to operate a small chicken farm, said he considers pigeons pests who contaminate livestock feed.

"Do (the protesters) realize what kind of germs they carry?" Lala said as he stopped for lunch at Hardee's.

"I have no problem with the method (of a pigeon shoot). I wouldn't be unhappy if they eradicated those birds from the face of the earth, or sent them all to Japan – I'd be happy to help," he said.

Gale DeRenzy, owner of Gales Lounge at First and Elm, said he welcomes anything that keeps the birds away from the town square.

"We have quite a problem here with them roosting," he said.

DeRenzy said he has put a substance pigeons supposedly don't like on the eaves, and he as at times lit firecrackers to scare the birds away.

"That doesn't work … they just come right back," he said.

But two women said they agree with animal rights activists protesting the event, and they joined the vigil at times Thursday.

"I believe in animal rights and just stopped by to give assistance," said Roberta Oliver of Farmington, who had been driving on Illinois Route 78 with her husband, Orval. "I think this (demonstration) is something that should have happened a long time ago."

Carla Murray of Canton, a biology student at Western Illinois University who works at K-mart in Canton, came to carry a sign in the early afternoon. She said she learned of the pigeon shoot a few years ago after spotting wounded birds near an animal hospital about one-quarter mile south of Holford's land.

"I'd like to see the shoot outlawed completely," she said. "I used to work at Spoon River Animal Center and could never figure out why sometimes we would see pigeons with broken wings and holes in them."