Pigeon-shoot foe proposes fistfight

July 11, 1990

The Republican (Pottsville, PA)

By Karen Hube

An Illinois man has challenged the former chairman of the Hegins Pigeon Shoot Committee, Bob Tobash, to a "physical confrontation…without time limit, rules, officiating or any protective gear whatsoever."

The deal goes like this. If Steven Hindi, of Plano, Ill., loses he pays $10,000 toward the Hegins Community Park. If he loses to Tobash, the 56 year-old-shoot ends forever.

"He'll probably have about 200 takers," said Tobash this morning in response to the letter.

Tobash said that even though the letter was addressed to him, he plans to pass it on to the Hegins Pigeon Shoot Committee, because it is not up to him whether the shoot continues or not.

"I'm just one of the people involved, I don't even shoot," said Tobash, who was chairman of the committee about three years ago.

But Tobash said he could hardly take the challenge seriously.

"The letter sounds far-fetched, it sounds crazy to me," he said. "I don’t' think he (Hindi) could possibly be thinking correctly."

Environmentalists from Northeastern United States and as far as Hindi's Illinois and Florida tried a stop at the event last year by attending last year's shoot in protest. In the letter, Hindi said he was among the 500 protesters.

Coordinated by a shoot committee, the event is held as a fundraiser for the Hegins Community Park. Each contestant pays about $90 to stand about 30 yards from pigeon-loaded traps and shoot the birds when they are released. Young "trap boys" hired to catch wounded birds and break their necks are another area of dispute.

On Labor Day last year, about 7,000 birds were killed by about 200 shooters. Approximately $15,000 was raised through the event.

In his letter to Tobash, dated June 28, Hindi said that he is willing to draft all the necessary legal paperwork and hold the fight prior to this year's shoot.

Hindi is going this route, he writes, because "no amount of either fact, logic or conscience will deter" the shoot, so a "different course of action is required."

"In the event that Bob Tobash should prevail, my ten thousand dollars would go to the Hegins Community Park," wrote Hindi, adding that in that case, the shoot would go on.