Shoot opponents divided on how to stop annual event

August 9, 1990

Pottsville (PA.) Republican

By Karen Hube

An Illinois man whose challenge to a supporter of the Fred Coleman Memorial Pigeon Shoot for a debate was denied Wednesday, said there’s no choice but to protest the annual event with civil disobedience.

Steven Hindi, of Plano, Ill., challenged Attorney James P. Diehl of Pottsville to a debate in a letter sent this week. Diehl formerly represented the Hegins Park Association, the organizers of the shoot.

Diehl said Wednesday the issue has already been debated at great length by legislators and the Pennsylvania courts, so it is pointless for him to do so, especially when the courts had upheld the legality of the shoot.

“Let’s just get some comments from them. They’re all a bunch of cowards,” Hindi said. “It’s like the Schuylkill County Ku Klux Klan…what do they have to hide?”

The main animal-rights group responsible for arranging last year’s protest, Animal Rights Mobilization (ARM) said it does not generally oppose civil disobedience, but in the case of the Hegins shoot, it may be counter productive.

“They would get rid of us and then go on as planned,” said Dana M. Stuchell, one of the directors of ARM, a national organization. “It’s not the only shoot and it’s our long-range goal to stop them all across the state.”