Senate bill to ban animal shoots in Pa. advances

    Animal welfare advocates are celebrating a state Senate committee vote on a measure that would outlaw pigeon shoots and other target shoots with live animals, which they say is the first such vote on the issue in almost a dozen years.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-3 to send the full Senate the measure, which would make such activities a summary offense.

    Heidi Prescott, senior vice president of campaigns for the Humane Society of the United States, told the Lancaster Sunday News that she is elated. She says Pennsylvania is the only state where live pigeon shoots are openly staged.

    A National Rifle Association group, however, calls bird shooting a “historic and legitimate activity steeped in tradition” and says opponents are intent on “banning all hunting species by species.”

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