THE “SPORT” OF PIGEON-SHOOTING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 96, 14 July 1927, Page 10

THE “SPORT” OF PIGEON-SHOOTING

ONCE again a humane aspect of legislation is shown in a Bill brought before the Legislative Council to make pigeonshooting illegal. It is a tribute to the better side of polities lb at amid the distractions of party strife and the considerations of revenue and ways and means there are to be found parliamentarians who are willing to legislate for the alleviation of suffering among the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. The Bill has sound precedent, for it is framed on the same lines as the English Act passed two years dgo. As its sponsor points out, the shooting of captive birds from traps is “a relic of barbarism,” and is so regarded by an overwhelming body of public opinion. The sensitive soul shudders at bull-fighting. But there is more sport in that than there is in pigeon-shooting. The bull sometimes “gets” the toreador and evens things up. The pigeon cannot get the man with the gun. If a toreador were to take a gun into an arena, the crowd would tear him to pieces. The pigeon-shooter faces a few ounces of flesh and feathers at short range with two barrels of scattering shot—and some people call it sport! It is related by Mr. Thompson, M.L.C., that at a certain match in New Zealand 46 competitors took part, the winner killing all his birds, but the others varying down to only one bird. The number of injured pigeons that fluttered away to die in the agony of their wounds can be imagined. There is just as good a test of marksmanship in shooting at clay pigeons as at live ones, and death and suffering is then avoided. All people who are sportsmen in the sense that they arc opposed to the infliction of suffering on helpless creatures will hope that the Bill now before Parliament will become law.