Posted on 02/12/2006 12:46:46 PM PST by bayourant
Edited on 02/12/2006 2:10:43 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.
Armstrong said Whittington was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.
Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and found a second covey.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong told the Associated Press in an interview.
"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.
"It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."
She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.
"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."
Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.
"This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.
Made a fresh batch of deer jerky today {not bad!} first time with my new meat gun.
Oh man, that's my new tagline!
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Is she back from the breeder yet? Will she be a happy mother made?
There's a special place in perdition for low-life garfish types who'll steal a hunting dog.
Unfortunately, my little retriever girl is so friendly, she'll go with ANYbody and work for ANYbody. She's the meet-and-greet dog at any hunt test day. I can loan her out to people at agility training, and she'll run the course with enthusiasm and watch them like a hawk. And of course she'll pick up anybody's birds if given half a chance.
I never leave her in the yard unattended, she's really a house dog that also works . . .
That's right, man, you're the one who slithered out from under a rock to take a cheap shot at me for no reason.
But I repeat myself.
You got something against Reality Filters? Sounds like a personal problem. Or are you for some reason or other compelled to swing with every tide of Party-driven Spin, swearing all up and down that it's always the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Party HQ?
I'm sorry, I can't buy into that jive. If you can, well, knock yourself out. Me, I'll settle for reality. It may not be much, but a least it's real.
eeevil,
Where'd you find this poster?
They may be liable, but it happens,and plenty of times the Hunter is unaware, and there are times that the authorities do not know who did it. There is no solution that will please everyone. Years ago people did not live that close to where the Hunting areas were,now you have developments that border woods that Hunters are allowed to hunt in. Sometimes people have their pets accidentally hit by over zealous hunters. Hunters cannot guarantee that their shot that misses the Deer will not hit a nearby residence. Are they supposed to be blamed for this and called careless even if they follow the rules? Did you ever see vehicles that park near a driving range even one equipped with a net, they are hit and damaged by errant golf balls. The driving range does not usually pay much, your car insurance does.
DemocraticUnderwear is having a field day with this. Such losers.
Don't know where you live, but I live in Hillbilly country. The term Hillbilly used to describe proud mountain dwelling people of Celtic descent, fiercely independent.
Not now. There are a lot of inbreds (not dogs, humans) here, who have become dependent on years of liberal guilt-laden government interference.
Anyway, I live in bear and 'coon hunting territory. The 'coon is the official state animal, and the hunters here have been known to pay upwards of tens of thousands of dollars for a good 'coon hound.
That same dog owner might be govt. dependent, living in a trailer, with a satelitte dish and trampoline outside, but he knows a good hound.
Consequently, we live where dog thefts are routine. If you'll check your hunting dog history, Tennessee Lead, the sire (listed in the AKC) of all of today's American hounds are descended from TL. He was stolen from here and taken to Kentucky.
The official wildlife agency reports from the 1970s list the good hound bloodlines here as being the #1 factor behind the decline of the raccoon in that decade. They have since rebounded, mostly because the 'coon hunters have quit shooting them, and just use the hounds for treeing and bench events.
I know a thang or two about dogs :)
Just don't send your weims out there with him.
Do your own research, I am not your secretary and certainly not your sweetheart.
Element of surprise is half the fun......
This is a public forum and I can post here whenever I like. If you don't like it you can take it up with the people that run this site.
The darned things are a pest -- tipping over garbage cans etc.
A friend of mine wound up with a coon dog rescue. He's a handsome boy but not really the ideal house dog. Anyhow, he goes crazy whenever a coon goes through her yard. She's afraid to let him out for fear he'll be two counties over before he stops.
Do the hillbillies have GPS collars on their dogs yet?
In a word, yes. You ARE responsible where your shot goes. That's the law.
No way! My mutts stay close to me for quail hunting. No way I'd let them roam anywhere near a shooting area. I've even left them home in the past so there would not be a mistake.
LOL, my brother just asked me if the guy that got shot told Cheney he was voting for Hitlery?
Hey, how did this become a southern hillbilly bashing thread? I've been up north and those trailers your talking about are up there too. With a truck and a couple of old rusting cars setting in the front yard.
I'm not even going into the inbred stuff.
Oh c'mon. Know downrange, look downrange before you shoot. Don't shoot with houses in the background.
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