Pigeon shoots are vile events where thousands of birds are shot, wounded and left to die a slow and excruciating death.

The Broxton Bridge Plantation, in Ehrhardt, South Carolina, is going to have a massive four day live pigeon shoot from February 9-12, 2012. SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) is calling on Governor Haley to use her authority to shut down what we believe is an illegal pigeon shoot.

 We believe that these shoots are a violation of S.C. Code Ann. ß 47-1-70 (2011), which makes it illegal to "abandon" any animal by "deserting, forsaking, or intending to" give up an animal "without securing another owner or without providing the necessities of life."  An "animal" under the South Carolina animal cruelty laws clearly includes pigeons because "animal" is defined as "a living vertebrate creature except a homo sapien."


Every time a captured or hand raised pigeon is put into a box and launched into the air so they can be shot at for fun, that's abandonment. Furthermore, it has been our experience, after documenting dozens of pigeon shoots, that a large percentage of birds escape and fly away. Most of those birds are wounded and may take hours or even days to die. We believe that this absolutely is abandonment under South Carolina law.