Courier News reports that animal rights advocates have obtained video footage of members of the United Bowhunters of New Jersey drugging pheasants before kicking them into flight and shooting them dead with arrows. Stuart Chaifetz, director of Animal Protection PAC, says he discovered the video on the Internet. He also found mention of how the shooters had drugged the birds so they would not flush until the hunters were right upon them on the NJ group’s website.
Chaifetz says he’s turning the video over to the New Jersey SPCA. He points out that while state law is not precise, it generally holds it to be illegal to conduct target practice on live animals; kicking birds is also a criminal offense.
2 Comments
Pistols
on #Pheasants are not indigenous to the US, they were brought here for the sole purpose of hunting. When raised in pens for hunting, these birds do not have the opportunity to fly, and therefore, do not fly when being hunted; rather, they run. Pheasants will also “sit tight” as an instinct. One of their ways to avoid predation is to sit tight where they are and let the predators walk on by. That is why the hunters were kicking them.
jenniferross24
on #Where is the fun in hunting an animal that is drugged? If hunting is supposed to be considered a sport shouldn’t the animals have a chance to fight back? In my opinion this is incredibly cruel and there is absolutely no reason someone should be drugging a bird before hunting it. If someone wants to hunt as “sport” the animals should at least have a fighting chance of surviving. How would the hunters like it if they were drugged and hunted?