February 24, 2016
Philly.com
A teenager hired to humanely kill birds injured by hunters at the Philadelphia Gun Club has been charged with animal cruelty after an animal-rights activist filmed him last month throwing injured pigeons and pelting them it with rocks and ice.
The boy, 17, of Bridgeton, N.J., was working for a subcontractor hired by the riverside club in Bensalem to retrieve and euthanize birds wounded during a Jan. 30 pigeon shoot, Bensalem Police Lt. William McVey said. His name wasn't released because he is a juvenile.
Activists from SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness) have long protested the semiannual shoots, in which hunters gun down live birds released from boxes. A SHARK activist filmed the teen chasing injured birds on the riverbank, throwing them to the ground, pelting them with rocks and ice and jabbing them with sticks in violation of state animal-cruelty laws.
