Plano activist arrested at pigeon shoot

September 6, 1990

The Beacon-News (Aurora, IL)

By Mark O’Leary

Steve Hindi says that there’s something wrong with someone who shoots pigeons for fun, then recruits young boys to finish off the wounded and collect the corpses.

This week, he put his belief into action. Hindi, an animal rights activist who lives in Plano, was arrested at the 57th Annual Fred Coleman Memorial Shoot at Hegins, Pa. About 4,800 pigeons were shot and killed at the day-long community fund-raiser, billed as the largest live pigeon shoot in the world.

But Hindi, a former sportsman who’s now a vegetarian, sees it differently. He described the shoot as “cold-blooded, cruel, and inhumane” and an “atrocity.”

If you get a kick out of killing pigeons, what’s next?, he asked. Cats? Dogs? Women, because they are smaller and weaker than men?, Hindi asked.

Hindi was one of 25 people arrested Monday after clashes between animal rights activists and spectators. Activists showed up from 10 states, some from as far away as California. Hindi was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, partly for kicking out the window of a spectator’s car. By Hindi’s account, he stepped in front of a moving car after it began bumping into protesters leaving the event. The car accelerated, forcing him to jump onto the hood to avoid being knocked under the wheels, he said. When the car accelerated with Hindi on the hood, Hindi said he kicked the window to make the driver stop.

That was after the shoot. But earlier this summer, Hindi had tried to put the brakes on the entire event. He offered to pay Bob Tobash, the organizer of the shoot, $5,000 if he could beat Hindi in a fight without rules. If Hindi were to win, the event would be canceled.

Tobash, who was not available for comment, didn’t respond to the invitation, Hindi said. Tobash also refused to publicly debate the event with Hindi, he said.

To what end?

“When we let people in the country know what’s going on…they will be so enraged they will demand a change,” Hindi said after his return.

Animal rights activists are enraged, Hindi said. Hunters and sportsmen should be too, Hindi said.

A hunter must learn the way of his quarry. He goes to the field, quietly stalks his prey, and gets off a clean shot and efficiently kills the animal, Hindi said. If the animal is wounded, the hunter tracks the animal to finish off the kill.

But in pigeon shooting, he said, the birds are sometimes stored two or three days before the event without food or water. When they are released from their cages, some birds raised in cages don’t even fly away, and are shot on the ground, Hindi said. Wounded birds are killed by the trapper boys, who are six to 10 years old. The birds are ultimately used for fertilizer.

During the event, Hindi said he shouted slogans to stop the shooting, and walked among spectators hoping to appeal to their sense of compassion. Other protesters tried to protect the pigeons by running between the birds and the shooters, Hindi said.

A veterinarian was arrested for trying to humanely kill wounded birds, Hindi said.

Seventy Pennsylvania State Troopers were at the event to keep order, said Tom Lyons, public relations officer for the department. Though protesters started the day with verbal confrontations, 14 were later charged with criminal trespassing. Lyons added it was impossible to determine who started the confrontations and that many people were drinking. Some protestors ran onto the shooting field between shooters and the pigeons and tried to release pigeons from cages.