Posted on 10/21/2016 7:08:55 AM PDT by Daffynition
A pigeon racing enthusiast avoided jail Wednesday, but was fined $5,500 and ordered to volunteer in an animal shelter for killing federally protected hawks that were attacking pet birds he spent years raising in Stamford.
The case against pigeon racer Thomas Kapusta was the first major prosecution in Connecticut under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Neither side got everything it wanted from the sentence that was imposed after debate about whether the lives of some creatures have more value than those of others.
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
How the heck does one get CAUGHT doing that?
Oh my.
We recently bought some land where bald eagles nest in the winter. I don’t think we’ll be bringing the cats along when we camp on the weekends.
Some pets are simply incompatible with certain environments.
I gotta say I’m a bit conflicted over this one. On one hand pigeons are dirty disgusting loathsome flying rats and if the guy were my neighbor I’d really hate it, but on the other they are actual livestock and the hawks (predators) were killing the guy’s livestock. This bit about letting predators kill your livestock while you are forbidden by law to protect your property is just plain wrong.
Clearly a hate crime...
Because we know what would happen to the pigeons if they went after the hawk!
/s
Spied on by the neighbors and doubtless turn in by them. Would you want to live next to a guy that harbored 100+ dirty noisy pigeons on his property, but would doubtless fly over your property and leave many souvenirs.
I met a guy who knew an heir to the Chrysler fortune and she raised pigeons to help train her hunting dogs and on her estate she had a literal pit full of dead Redtail Hawks that used to prey on her pigeons. Her sentencing by the judge was hilarious, community service at a homeless shelter kitchen where the heir supervised her help staff do the kitchen work, till the judge found out.
Dude failed to properly execute the SSS.
That makes sense. I own my own 32 acres and my neighbors are in a similar position. Heck, they’d probably join me if I was shooting hawks.
If I lived in a suburban area I’d use a silencer.
He got caught. and the fact that he was told: **his selfish concern for his birds and his hobby deprived others of the opportunity to view migrating birds of prey**, sounds like BS.
Keeping of homing pigeons is a generational thing. Bushwick/Brooklyn, NY
Obviously, the “racing enthusiast” needs faster pigeons. :-)
Man, if you have never seen a hawk catch a pigeon you don’t know watch the words “vicious attack” means. I suppose you could consider it merciful for the pigeon but they know their business and they don’t waste time.
No sympathy for this person. There are several ways to mitigate losses from hawks or other birds of prey. Did he try any of them? Instead he lures hawks in by crating pigeons, and then shoots hawks when they become trapped trying to get to the pigeons.
He got what he deserved.
Wasn't there a way to better protect the pigeons? If I had a henhouse that a fox was raiding, I'd shore up the defenses of the henhouse rather than kill foxes.
“Her sentencing by the judge was hilarious, community service at a homeless shelter kitchen where the heir supervised her help staff do the kitchen work, till the judge found out.”
I know of one even worse than that. There’s an ultra-libtard woman who lives in area. She’s an ‘activist’ of sorts. Went to Iraq to be a ‘human shield’, but left a day before the war began. She goes out and protests at nuclear sites and then prides herself on getting arrested when security has to drag her off. Well, her luck ran out when she went to protest the US detainment of the high value savages at Gitmo, by going to Ft Huachuca in AZ and trespassing to get herself arrested. The federal judge was quite lenient IMO, having pity on this ‘poor old woman’, and only sentenced her to 500 hours of community service. Clever as she was, she put the land she owns and lives on in some sort of tax exempt land trust that would qualify for her ‘community service’ by doing nothing but working on her own land!!! This same bitch used to brag about being friends with Janet Reno.
Hawks are an unmitigated predator that accounts for the decline of game species such as Pheasants, rabbits and quail. Protected status should be revoked and they should be hunted the same as foxes and coyotes.
“Wasn’t there a way to better protect the pigeons? If I had a henhouse that a fox was raiding, I’d shore up the defenses of the henhouse rather than kill foxes.”
Exactly. You’d never kill all the foxes.
No sympathy for this person. There are several ways to mitigate losses from hawks or other birds of prey.
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We used to keep chickens, down to only a few now but the hawks would routinely inspect the fenced chicken yard to see if they could get at the chickens. The hawks don’t like to get inside the fenced area because it takes them several feet to get airborne. On occasion a chicken would decide to check out the other side of the fence, the hawk sees all. A chicken can fly, not long and usually not high but with a whole lot of effort they can get over a 6 foot fence. Soon the hapless chicken would have a broken neck and a hawk trying to butcher it before my wife could chase the hawk off. The chicken would end up in our pot not the hawks but it makes you real mad. These animals are not pets but you do have an attachment after taking care of them for years. They all become individuals with their own personalities.
Anyway, I understand where the guy was coming from. I never shot the hawk(s). They were always watching, they would have been easy pickings for my 22 and while I do have neighbors one shot from the 22 would never be noticed. I have to admit I though about it more than once.
I can sympathize. We keep purple martins in summer. It’s alot of work and $$. Hawks love picking the them off. Migrate? They know where the buffet is and don’t leave. English sparrows are another pain. But I’m able to kill them since they aren’t protected.
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