NYC Bar Association Supports Pennsylvania Legislation Banning Live Pigeon Shoots

Cites Harm to New York City Birds and Residents

The New York City Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee has written to Pennsylvania’s House Speaker urging passage of H.B. 1097, legislation that would prohibit the use of live pigeons as targets at trap shoots and block shoots.

The committee’s letter details the wide-ranging cruelty of the events and their direct impact on New York City communities. At these events, thousands of feral and domesticated pigeons are released from mechanical traps and shot by attendees. The City Bar’s letter describes the grim aftermath: hundreds of birds die slowly from wounds, without veterinary care or sustenance, while others are killed by methods that include having their heads torn off and bodies smashed against the ground.

The committee emphasizes that the problem is not confined to Pennsylvania. To supply birds for these shoots, individuals have repeatedly been caught trapping pigeons in New York City — netting them in parks and public spaces before transporting them across state lines. “Large groups of birds are captured in a single net, often resulting in broken legs and wings,” the report states. According to necropsy reports, birds shot during the pigeon shoots have already suffered from dehydration and emaciation.

As recently as April 2025, CBS News reported that 150 pigeons disappeared from Bushwick’s Maria Hernandez Park, with residents attributing the loss to trappers supplying pigeon shoots.

Such conduct violates New York City’s 2019 ban on pigeon netting, New York State’s Environmental Conservation Law, and the federal Lacey Act.

Pennsylvania is currently the only state with active live pigeon shoots, “which is surprising given its longstanding history of animal protection,” states the report. Pennsylvania was among the first to pass a robust anti-cruelty statute, in the 1800s. And today, the Animal Legal Defense Fund ranks Pennsylvania’s animal protection laws among the “Top Tier” of states.

The City Bar notes that pigeon shoots have been compared by co-sponsors of H.B. 1097 to cockfighting, dogfighting, and greyhound racing — all of which Pennsylvania has banned. Among those supporting the banning of pigeon shoots are the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, the Pennsylvania Federation of Humane Societies, and the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.

Read the letter to Pennsylvania’s House Speaker here.

The City Bar has previously commented on this issue here and here.

About the Association
The mission of the New York City Bar Association, which was founded in 1870 and has over 20,000 members, is to equip and mobilize a diverse legal profession to practice with excellence, promote reform of the law, and uphold the rule of law and access to justice in support of a fair society and the public interest in our community, our nation, and throughout the world. www.nycbar.org

About the Animal Law Committee
The New York City Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee is the nation’s first bar association animal law committee. It regularly addresses legal, regulatory and policy issues on local, state, national and international levels affecting non-human animals, both wild and domestic.