Pigeon Shoot Deplored

In a letter to The Times (Sept. 21), Christine Jackson, a staff writer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, deplores the Labor Day pigeon shoot in Hegins, Pa. I share Ms. Jackson’s disgust at this kind of event. However, she puts “animal rights philosophy” in a poor light when she asks, rhetorically, “How can it (shooting a pigeon raised for this purpose) be considered anything but coldblooded murder to blast that bird away?”

According to my dictionary, murder is “the offense of unlawfully killing a human being with malice aforethought, express or implied.” Since pigeons are not human beings and in this instance are not killed with malice aforethought, there is no question of murder here.

Something deplorable has happened--sentient creatures are sacrificed for what is arguably a comparatively trivial purpose--but to describe it as murder is a wild exaggeration and brings the animal rights movement into disrepute. If its spokespersons are so careless about the use of language, can we lay people trust them to get their facts and principles straight?

SHANE ANDRE

Seal Beach