From Animal Defenders of Westchester (ADOW)

We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

"STOP THE NYS PHEASANT HUNT" - NY DAILY NEWS

Published in today's NY Daily News by a member of Animal Defenders of Westchester. Letters to the editor: [email protected]

https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/10/15/readers-sound-off-on-unethical-hunting-death-by-firing-squad-and-ices-shooter/

Stop N.Y. raising birds to kill for sport

Tuckahoe, N.Y.: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation takes almost $2 million of our tax dollars to import non-native baby birds for folks to shoot at for “good training tools,” as the DEC calls them. Many hunters refuse to hunt hand-raised pheasants for the very reason that they present no real challenge.

Why is the state artificially producing innocent victims to be hunted? The DEC seeks volunteers, often children, to raise these babies by hand. When released at kill sites after they’re old enough, the birds lack survival skills to find food or escape predators and are sometimes killed when they wander into traffic. They have imprinted to humans and at times walk right up to hunters. The event is akin to shooting fish in a barrel. The DEC justifies this carnage, saying the pitiful slaughter “offers a highly accessible gateway to the outdoors and an ideal introduction for hunters from non-traditional pathways.” Indeed — non-traditional and unethical. Hunting is losing popularity and the DEC knows it, so it struggles to keep hunting profits coming in by any means. Animal advocates have begged the DEC to replace this abhorrent practice with skeet or trap shooting, which are increasing in popularity. It refuses.

State Assembly Bill A888 “prohibits the state’s participation in artificial propagation activities.” Please tell your representatives to support it.

Kiley Blackman

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