Activist targets state officials

March 28, 1991

The Journal Star (Peoria, IL)

By Toby Eckert

Springfield – Animal rights activists will take their cause against live pigeon shoots to the Department of Conservation today.

Steve Hindi, the Plano resident leading the crusade to halt the shoots, plans to confront Terry Musser, the state manager for controlled hunting, over DOC policies that allow the shoots. Hindi said Musser has been avoiding him for several weeks, something Musser denies.

"We're going to confront the little, squeamish jerk," Hindi said. "We are going to walk into the DOC office and confront him about live pigeon shoots. I want to look the man in the eye."

The confrontation will be a preview of the protest Hindi is organizing against a pigeon shoot at a private gun club near Canton. The annual competitive shoot will be held April 18-21. The pigeons are released from traps inside a fenced ring and the shooters attempt to kill them before they clear the fence.

State law allows the shoots as long as the organizer obtains a permit. Rules for the shoot must be posted, and the shooters are required to kill maimed birds so they don't suffer.

Musser said conservation officers cannot stop the shoots. That would require action by the General Assembly.

"The department, by law, has to honor any request for a permit as long as the rules are followed," Musser said.

The new conservation director appointed by Gov. Jim Edgar Tuesday indicated there will be no change in the department's attitude toward pigeon shoots under his administration. "If it's legal, I have no problem with it," said G. Brent Manning, who will take over in April.

Musser denied Hindi's charge that he has been ducking the issue. "I've not had any requests from Mr. Hindi for a meeting," Musser said.

However, he conceded that Hindi invited him to a press conference in Peoria last Friday. He said he passed on the invitation to DOC's public affairs office.

Musser said he would meet with Hindi today. "Any constituent that comes in we will certainly take time for," he said.