Posted on 03/06/2008 2:38:01 PM PST by oblomov
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - PGA Tour golfer Tripp Isenhour was charged with killing a hawk on purpose with a golf shot because it was making noise as he videotaped a TV show Isenhour was with a film crew for "Shoot Like A Pro" on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf course. The 39-year-old golfer, whose real name is John Henry Isenhour III, was charged Monday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird.
According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up.
Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.
Isenhour allegedly said "I'll get him now," and aimed for the hawk.
"About the sixth ball came very near the bird's head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close," Baine wrote.
A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.
Isenhour's agent, John Mascatello with SFX World Sports Management, did not immediately return an e-mail or telephone message Thursday.
"He just kept saying how he didn't think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say," said Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot. "He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that's, I don't know, a couple hundred feet away?"
Senger said it was "basically like a joke to (Isenhour)." He said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it.
"It was one of those cases where there's some trepidation on whether or not they should speak up and do something," Senger said.
Senger said the killing was not captured on video. The bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators.
Isenhour, of Salisbury, N.C., turned pro in 1990. He had two wins on the Nationwide Tour in 2006.
Doh! I stand corrected, I was reading a different article that said he had two wins on the Nationwide tour. Re-reading it, that was in 06.
Anyway, Buy Tigers video instead!
See, being good at sports will catch up with you in the end.
If I pulled a stunt like that, all you'd hear is laughter when I missed the hawk by a mile.
It was a stupid, cruel thing to do. But if he'd just seen this movie, it would explain a lot:
That was two hours of Paul Giamatti carrying a hawk on his arm and waiting for it to die.
Some people actually believe you don’t kill creatures just to kill them. It wasn’t necessary. Hunters eat what they kill.
PGA, Nationwide, and a Tennis Pro!
Well, he could have shot an EAGLE.
This guy sure gets around! :-)
I feel bad for the golfer, not the bird-brained bird who was too dumb to fly off after two dozen golf balls whizzed by his head. I wonder if there is a statue of limitations on bird killings? I threw a softball at a pigeon and killed it when I was a boy. No, I don't feel guilty.
I hunt, and I eat what I kill, but I don’t have fits when an animal is killed for other reasons. If it is an ongoing thing, then I might call the person to task, but I bet that the hitting of this hawk was a total accident and didn’t happen the way it was reported. Killing a hawk is not a big deal, not nice maybe but hardly a reason to condem this person to death as serveral on FR have suggested. The animal lovers on FR get carried away quite frequently and wish horrible deaths on humans that they think killed animals un-necessarily. Do they think that makes them better than the person who killed the animals? I don’t think so, I do think that killing animals for food is fine, but many kill just for sport and say they are killing for food. I think this is ok also, as long as they don’t wipe out a species. Get over your self righeousness, it isn’t seemly and rather stupid to boot.
You nailed it dead center. Tiger Woods couldn’t hit a hawk from that distance. Boy, talk about blowing stuff out of proportion.
Ditto that, when I get grief for "Killing a helpless animal" (not that often, by the way) I ask, I guess it's better to get chased for two miles, get dragged down and eaten alive by a pack of wolves?
Yes, stupid bird indeed. Our hawks would fly off after the slightest provocation. My only thought is that they might have been fed by some of the golfers and become more tame.
As for a pidgeon vs a hawk, I’m going to have to admit to a bit of prejudice toward the hawk.
But you gotta admit...this is one helluva lot more ‘sporting’ than just cappin the bird with a scoped rifle...I mean, it takes persistence, luck, and fate...the stupid bird didn’t know when to vacate. Hardly a representative of the species that would fit into the overall scheme of the “survival of the fittest” genre....
Sounds bout right.
I don't know why. Red shouldered hawks are abundant in Georgia. And I'm not talking about red TAILED hawks either, which are even more abundant. It's hard to hit a driver and NOT hit a hawk.
Interesting that the libs don’t complain about the 1 in 100 who are in jail at times like this, huh?
That’s a handsome bird. If that was your capture then congrats.
We had another Red Shouldered Hawk for a short time. My wife spotted an id tag on it's leg and was able to contact the owner (another falconer). The owner paid for air freight all the way to Florida to recover the bird. It flew off during a falconry meet in San Diego. My wife later captured it.
Must be a different breed of rabbits up there. Around here, they don't live in the tops of trees.
Was he SMOKING? As long as he wasn’t SMOKING I say let him off with a fine.
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