Court takes aim & blasts pigeon shoots
BY DANA DiFILIPPO, Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: September 25, 2012
ANIMAL-RIGHTS activists and hunters have long disagreed about whether live pigeon shoots are barbaric torture or recreational fun. Last week, a federal judge in Philadelphia declared them messy, ordering a local organizer of pigeon shoots to apply to state environmental authorities for a "national pollutant discharge elimination system" permit.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network claimed the ruling as a victory. Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum, who keeps an environmental eye on 330 miles of the Delaware River and its 13,539 square miles of watershed, sued the Philadelphia Gun Club in March, arguing that the club violates the Clean Water Act by grossly polluting the river with large quantities of birdshot, casings and dead and dying pigeons during its shoots.
