Demand an End to the Slaughter of Mallards and Pheasants at Retriever Trials

American Kennel Club (AKC) Field Trials and other AKC retriever competitions feature trained dogs testing their skills in retrieving downed “game” birds for their handlers.. Both live and dead ducks and pheasants are typically used. The trials themselves would be legitimate sporting events if it weren't for the fact that the live birds are killed in a totally unnecessary and inhumane manner.

Dead birds are thrown down in the field at a distance from the starting point and, on signal, the dog is sent to retrieve the bird. At some point in the competition a live bird is launched and shot as part of a test. There is absolutely no need, as far as the dog or any aspect of the trial is concerned, however, to have a mallard or upland game bird killed in order to complete the competition. In fact, in some places live birds are not used at all, as is the case in Canadian Field Trials.

One telling fact is that when such trials appear on television, the birds are replaced by dokkens, an artificial replica of a real bird. These events take place at a high level of competition, the Super Retriever Series competition as an example. If dokkens are satisfactory there, they are certainly satisfactory at the level of local clubs. Those who produce retriever competitions for TV viewing realize that television would expose the pointless slaughter, would invite a national outcry, and the disgusting practice would be stopped in short order.

There are scores of these tests run over a weekend at any one of many locations across the country, and hundreds of birds are slaughtered in this callous and morally degraded way. In addition to birds killed outright during the trial, training for these events involves the constant killing of a large number of "fresh" birds to replace the dead birds which can only last so long.

The repugnant hypocrisy of the people involved in this cavalier and callous slaughter is especially disgusting coming from an organization which pretends to represent animals and to represent responsible owners who love posing as ethical sportsmen with a supposed respect for their prey. Their prey, when they actually do go afield, are usually game birds like the very creatures they abuse in these trials. The mallards they hunt are one of nature’s most astonishing and admirable creatures, flying every year through the autumn skies for thousands of miles to their destination.

The fact that they know enough to be ashamed to show their true selves when on a televised, national stage confirms that even they have an understanding, however dim, of the moral depravity of this vile abuse and bloodshed.