laura,
More on the Cheney "Killing Fields" of Rolling Rock.. Includes Sen. Cornyn and Roger Staubach....
<<<"It was a good shoot," said Mr. Cornyn, who figures he shot dozens of pheasants himself. He conceded that bagging the birds was so easy, at times it seemed "kind of like how Tyson's and Pilgrim's Pride and other people do it. ... I must tell you that people don't necessarily hunt the same way in Texas that they hunt in Ligonier, Pa., but it was enjoyable," he said.>>>
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
From the Dallas Morning News..
dallasnews.com
Cheney-Cornyn pheasant hunt drawing slings and arrows
Activists call it a slaughter; Texan says birds had 'fair chance'
10:37 AM CST on Thursday, December 18, 2003
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – When Dick Cheney and a hunting party that included Sen. John Cornyn and several other Texas Republicans bagged hundreds of pheasants at a private game reserve in Pennsylvania last week, animal-rights activists denounced it as a slaughter.
They were especially outraged that the vice president shot more than 70. But Mr. Cornyn said Wednesday that the birds had a sporting chance, even if they were farm-raised and released from nets for the hunters.
"It was a good shoot," said Mr. Cornyn, who figures he shot dozens of pheasants himself. He conceded that bagging the birds was so easy, at times it seemed "kind of like how Tyson's and Pilgrim's Pride and other people do it. ... I must tell you that people don't necessarily hunt the same way in Texas that they hunt in Ligonier, Pa., but it was enjoyable," he said.
Two major Republican donors from Dallas, investor Jeffrey Marcus and investment banker Daniel Cook, hosted the Dec. 8 outing at the exclusive Rolling Rock Club in southwestern Pennsylvania, Mr. Cornyn said. Real estate executive and former Dallas Cowboy Roger Staubach was there, too. Mr. Marcus declined to discuss the trip; the others did not return phone calls.
Mr. Cheney, who lived in Dallas from 1995 to 2000 when he was chairman of Halliburton Co., hunts and fishes often. His excursions rarely attract notice, but on this one, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the 10-man hunting party killed 417 of 500 pheasants released from nets for the morning hunt.
The Humane Society of the United States says that smacks of a mass killing.
"These birds were just planted right in front of this group of hunters. It was a blood bath, and it was a blaze of shotgun fire," said senior vice president Wayne Pacelle.
Mr. Cheney is known as a skilled hunter, and The New York Times picked up the story this week, tweaking him as someone who shouldn't need the sort of stacked odds a preserve like Rolling Rock can provide.
Cheney aides did not return messages. Rolling Rock chief operating officer Steve Klee said club policy precludes him from discussing patrons or anything else at the 10,000-acre facility. "I can't talk about the club activities at all," he said.
One dog handler did describe the hunt for WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh last week, though he could not be reached this week and another employee declined to say whether he still works there.
"We release pheasants off a hill, and they shoot them. They all stay in their blinds up ahead of us. The other guys like me, we have our dogs and we run them. We stand below [the hunters], and every bird they shoot, our dogs retrieve them," said the handler, Scott Wakefield.
When pheasants are in season, which they weren't last week, Pennsylvania sets a two per-day bag limit. Those rules don't apply at Rolling Rock and the state's 358 other private and commercial hunting clubs.Cocks can stand a foot high. They weigh 3 ½ pounds. And they measure 3 feet from beak to tail. Hens can reach 2 pounds. At close range, it doesn't take a sharpshooter to hit one, though "they're pretty quick and pretty agile," said Jerry Feaser, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who has hunted at game preserves and said it's not as unsporting as critics portray it.
"The birds certainly are able to fly, and they are able to fly away from these blinds and where hunters are," he said.
Outdoor writer Ted Kerasote, author of such books as Bloodties: Nature, Culture and the Hunt, about hunting ethics, said he's less offended by the Rolling Rock hunt than by Bush-Cheney policies that have opened more public lands to oil and gas drilling, to the detriment of game herds and sportsmen.
But he said few hunters would get much satisfaction when their prey has so little chance to escape. "That's like going to the grocery store and buying chicken," he said.
Mr. Cornyn, who was pursuing wild pheasant and quail Sunday in the Texas Panhandle when he got word that Saddam Hussein had been nabbed, said the Rolling Rock birds "had a fair chance, especially considering how bad a shot I am."
The group donated whatever birds they didn't keep to a local food bank, as hunters often do. Mr. Pacelle called that a "lame public relations ploy," though Mr. Kerasote said hunters throughout history have shared their excess bounty...
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I know it doesn't p!ss off many people, but it sure p!sses off me and many around here.... It is very telling of a person's personality.. When Cornyn said it was "enjoyable"....
And I read on some of these threads how the conservatives value life.. Even bird and animal life..
They are sicko Hypos..
EDIT: Kudos to Todd Gillman and "The Dallas Morning News" for keeping this story alive.. I seen it in our local paper today with the byline of "TDMN".. We don't like this kind of sh!t locally so I am glad our paper picked it up..
m |
