Pigeon politics: Anti-shoot bill hits House again

April 28, 1993

Citizen Standard

By Andrew Heintzelman, Editor

Harrisburg – Another bill that would ban live bird shoots in Pennsylvania – including the annual Labor Day shoot at Hegins – was introduced into the state House of Representatives last week.

Rep. Bob Allen (R-Schuylkill), who opposes such legislation, said the bill, an amendment to Title 18 of the Crimes and Offenses Act, was introduced on Wednesday, April 21, with prime sponsorship from Rep. George Saurman (D-Montgomery).

Saurman was at a conference in Alabama on Monday and was unavailable for comment, a secretary in his Harrisburg office said.

He introduced similar legislation last November, attaching it to another bill, but it never made it out of committee.

Allen expects the new bill to go to the judiciary committee and could reach the House floor for a vote “at any time.”

Allen said animal-rights activists have been “quite active” in Harrisburg on this and other issues. But the local representative says he has been active as well, talking to other legislators and trying to “protect sportsmen’s rights.”

Allen said Saurman’s bill has 12 sponsors, all of them Democrats and “none from rural Pennsylvania.” That is the same number of sponsors as last year, said Allen, noting that this is a good sign from his perspective.

Allen repeated his feelings from last year as far as the continuing battle.

“My constituents need to write to other members (of the House) as much as possible, expressing their concern.

“As time goes on, it gets tougher and tougher (to fight such legislation)” because of newer, younger members in Congress, he said, “but we’re up for the fight.”