Shoot protesters target new goals

August 25, 1993

Schuylkill News (Schuylkill Haven, PA)

By Bob Charlanza, Eagle Times

There will be fewer protesters and their behavior will be restrained compared to last year at the 59th annual Fred Coleman Memorial Shoot in Hegins on Labor Day, according to the coordinator of the animal rights activists.

Heidi Prescott, national outreach coordinator for The Fund For Animals Inc., Silver Spring, Md., explained the changes Tuesday that will affect the animal protest set for Sept. 6.

“Our goal this year is to broaden the campaign beyond Hegins,” she said, “Because too many people now believe there is only one such event in Pennsylvania where there is at least one every month during the year.

“We are going to have demonstrators at a half-dozen other private clubs that hold shoots, and there will be demonstrators with banners along routes leading across the state lines.

Except for Powderbourne Gun Club, East Greenville, Montgomery County, Prescott didn’t specify the other spots. She said there are at least 20 such clubs in the state.

Prescott said Pennsylvania State Police have been informed of the group’s intentions.

Charles Tocci, state police spokesman, did not confirm that, but said it is more difficult to control the scene at the public land at Hegins than at the private clubs.

Last year, the fund predicted an outpouring of 5,000 demonstrators in Hegins, but less than 1,5000 from more than 15 states turned out.

While the protesters didn’t set any records, the total turnout of 12,000 did.

A total of 114 people, 91 of them protesters, were arrested, including Prescott, who has been arrested at the event the last two years. She said she doesn’t plan to get arrested this year.

Other changes were revealed by Prescott.

There won’t be a national convention of the fund in Harrisburg, nor will there be participation from Cleveland Amory, fund president.

“We are boycotting spending money in the state,” she said. “Instead we are planning vigils on nights preceding the shoot.”

She said fund organizers also will not cooperate in pre-demonstration meetings with state police as they did last year.

“We don’t think it was beneficial,” she said, “Because we didn’t feel the arrests were even-handed, although it was better last year than in the past.

“But we are seeking police protection, especially from the Ku Klux Klan and the skinheads who are supposed to be there.”

Hegins police Chief Steven Lorr said he has heard rumors about a greater KKK presence.

A source said there will be a greater turnout of KKK to support the rights of the shooters.

Last year, two fully garbed Klansmen paraded around the shoot and were greeted warmly by many of the shooters.

They were Grand Klaliff Charles Juba of Epphrata, Lancaster County, and Klansman Douglas E. Siders of Harrisburg. Juba said he was asked by Lebanon County shooters to show up in support of the shooters rights.

No skinheads were observed last year, Lohr said.

Prescott said the important thing is to get support for a state House of Representatives bill and halt pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania.

“Since last year, the shoots have been banned in Illinois,” Prescott said.

She said six months ago, the Illinois attorney general issued an opinion against the shoots based on animal cruelty statutes. She said clubs are not planning to appeal the decision.

“There is no justification for pigeon shoots,” she said. “Even many hunters don’t like the black eye the shoots give them.”

“Prescott said Pennsylvania and Texas are the only states that still have pigeon shoots, but Tim Korsak of Cechtelsville disputed that.

Korsak, president of the Pennsylvania Flyers Association, said the publicity group was designed as a truth squad to keep the anti-shooters honest.

“They have been able to say anything since they began the protest five years ago,” he said. “We are going to even things up.”

He claimed only eight states don’t allow shoots: Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.