Pigeon-Shooting (1872)

AUTHOR: Bergh, Henry

KEYWORDS: animals, animal welfare, CHristian morality

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen)

This letter, addressed to James Gordon Bennett, Jr. (publisher of The New York Herald), responds to a public announcement for “a pigeon shooting-match on Saturday, December 30, at Jerome Park,” New York. Bergh points out that such shootings are “in direct violation of the law” and that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is “requested to enforce all laws relating to this subject.” Bergh lambasts “this cruel and unmanly 'sport'” and calls for “a more humane and loyal sentiment” toward animals in general and pigeons in particular. He thinks it unbearable that any Christian could derive “pleasure from the mutilation and agony of one of the tamest and most gentle of all the feathered race” which, in addition, also happens to be “a heavenly emblem.” “[S]hattered and torn,” Bergh continues, the bird “either falls dead or, more frequently dies of starvation.” Pigeon shooting thus amounts to a “violation of the laws of God and man” and must “cease.” Bergh calls on Bennett to “desist from the cruel and illegal” practice and announces that he will take the “necessary measures to vindicate the laws on the occasion in question” (167).