[GrileVege]

Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus (D-Lackawanna), is the Prime Sponsor of H.B. 2130 which if passed, would discontinue pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania:

"It is time to end one of Pennsylvania's biggest embarrassments: live pigeon shoots. I saw first-hand the horror of live pigeon shoots when I was working as a television news reporter in Scranton. These events are not sport. At a pigeon shoot, birds either bred or captured are released one at a time about 30 yards from the shooter. Wounded birds that are not killed by the shotgun pellets fall to the ground and suffer or are collected and their necks snapped.

Pennsylvania is the only state where pigeon shoots openly occur. Even in the one state where state law expressly allows the shoots -- Tennessee -- no known pigeon shoots take place.

My bill (H.B. 73) would outlaw live pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania, and establish the offense as a third-degree felony. It would not apply to dog training or other shooting or hunting activities.

Please join my fight to end live pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania by signing my petition".

However, legislation is pending in the Pennsylvania House to ban this atrocity which has 51 sponsors. Unfortunately, House Majority Leader William DeWeese is refusing to bring the Bill up for a vote. The Pennsylvania legislative session is almost over which will mean the Bill will have to be reintroduced into the Calendar in January 2009.