March 27, 2018
DEAR FRIENDS,
In just the first quarter of 2018, the SHARK team has been active in eight states - Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Alabama, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We’re working against animal abuse as only we can, because for years we’ve invested in, and trained to use the latest technology on the front lines to document and expose animal cruelty.
After SHARK’s extraordinary drone campaigns against Pennsylvania pigeon shoots held at Thunder Ridge and Wing Pointe at the end of last year, which exposed in stunning detail how workers and children abused wounded pigeons, the pigeon shooters went into hiding, fearful that we would expose them as well. And they are 100% right to be worried about our new high-powered drones.
Our new drones were able to document up close the cruelty committed at these PA shoots
The really good news is that the notorious Philadelphia Gun Club, which has held pigeon shoots regularly for more than 100 years, has not held one pigeon shoot on any Saturday during their regular shooting season. With just a week or more left in their season (their property borders the Delaware River and when the weather is nice there are too many people on the water for them to shoot), this looks to be a historic victory for SHARK!
Please remember while others, such as HSUS, sold out the pigeons in PA, SHARK stood our ground and continued to fight for them. The only reason why untold thousands of pigeons are not being slaughtered is because of our hard work.
The really good news is that the notorious Philadelphia Gun Club, which has held pigeon shoots regularly for more than 100 years, has not held one pigeon shoot on any Saturday during their regular shooting season. With just a week or more left in their season (their property borders the Delaware River and when the weather is nice there are too many people on the water for them to shoot), this looks to be a historic victory for SHARK!
Please remember while others, such as HSUS, sold out the pigeons in PA, SHARK stood our ground and continued to fight for them. The only reason why untold thousands of pigeons are not being slaughtered is because of our hard work.
The Schrader's worker admitting on video that they held a pigeon shoot, while about to shoot pigeons in the parking lot area
In Illinois, SHARK is using its Angel drones to document potential dog fighting and cockfighting supply operations. So far we’ve met with the applicable police and animal control agencies, and some elected officials in Will and Kane Counties, where the activities are occurring. If the authorities cannot or will not take action, we will propose new laws to prohibit the grouping of animals that could be used for fighting.
Our drone filmed more than 60 dogs at a home in University Park, IL (ABOVE) and a large chicken/rooster compound at a different location (BELOW)
In February, we traveled to South Carolina to expose pigeon shoots at the infamous Broxton Bridge Plantation, a former slave plantation turned canned hunt club. We were last outside a Broxton Bridge pigeon shoot in 2012, and one of our drones was shot down.
This time we brought the latest drone technology, including cameras with much more zoom. Our Angels successfully gathered graphic documentation of unbelievable acts of depravity at Broxton Bridge by young teen and even preteen boys and girls against wounded pigeons. After the horrendous treatment, the kids dumped the birds into garbage containers while still alive.
Broxton Bridge, desperate to stop our drones from documenting their indefensible cruelty, had multiple thugs in the surrounding woods with rifles to shoot our Angel drones. Three of the drones were in fact shot, representing a loss of thousands of dollars, and constituting federal violations for shooting FAA registered aircraft.
Even when Colleton County sheriff’s deputies arrived, the thugs continued their shooting of our drones. The Sheriff’s Department stated all of this in a comprehensive police report. In fact, we were able to prove that Broxton Bridge owner Jerry Varn lied to the police.
Now we hope that the Colleton County attorney and the Federal Aviation Administration will do their job and prosecute and fine the perpetrators. Meanwhile, as previously mentioned, we have the documentation of the animal abuse, and we’ll use it on Broxton Bridge Plantation for as long as it takes to make it stop.
Broxton Bridge Plantation Thugs Shoot Drones, Lie to Police
Self-proclaimed "Biggest Dickhead Southern Redneck Mother F*cker"
Broxton Bridge Plantation Owner Denigrates School Shooting Survivors
Pigeon Diseases - Truth or Excuse?
The Goose Who Hates Pigeon Shooters
Just a few days after our trip to South Carolina, we were in Wisconsin to document a ridiculous chicken toss spectacle in the town of Ridgeland. This was an event put on by idiots, for idiots. Having just lost three drones to Broxton Bridge thugs, we did not use our remaining Angels, but did the best we could with regular cameras.
ABOVE: a chicken being thrown. BELOW: Chickens packed into a cage before they are thrown
This nonsense is reminiscent of the equally stupid pig wresting event that SHARK exposed a few years ago in Stephensville, Wisconsin. You may recall that a Catholic parish was sponsoring that abusive event, and that our pressure resulted in an end to that event.
Interestingly, Ridgeland also has a pig wrestling spectacle (see picture below) although not nearly as big as the church’s now defunct operation. While only five pigs were subjected to this idiocy as opposed to the dozens that were abused during the parish pig wrestling spectacle, we will still try to make change by exposing the abuse and embarrassing stupidity.
Just to round out the mindless ludacrity, there was a donkey basketball spectacle (below) the night before in the neighboring town of Prairie Farms. Not surprisingly, cameras weren’t allowed for the donkey basketball, so our investigators did the best they could with hidden cameras. This area of Wisconsin apparently takes pride in being stupid and abusive to animals. That may sound very strange to people with active brain cells, but if you had been there, you’d understand.
While SHARK usually deals with the plight of thousands of animals, we don't ignore the call when an individual animal needs our help. This rooster was abandoned and found his way to SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz's house. We will tell the full story in a forthcoming video, but the rooster, named "Telly," is now happily living at the Freedom Farm Animal Rescue.
In March we traveled to Mobile, Alabama, to document a pigeon shoot held by the Alabama Forestry Association (AFA). Similar to US Senator Inhofe pigeon shoots, live pigeons were tossed up in front of pitiless shooters who simply shot the birds and left them where they fell, whether they were dead or still alive. It was utter cruelty and waste.
When the slaughter was over, a few SHARK investigators went onto the property and rescued dozens of wounded pigeons. We also retrieved a few hundred bodies of the dead.
After finding a rehabilitation center for the still living birds, we traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, which is where the AFA is headquartered. We then dumped the bodies of the dead pigeons on the AFA’s property. We didn’t do it secretly, and we didn’t run afterwards, and the AFA was apparently too embarrassed to try to take any legal action against us.
We don’t often commit civil disobedience, but this was an instance requiring that a stand be taken. We’ll be on the lookout for any more shoots by the AFA, and they may rest assured that we will not hesitate to take similar action. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to upload damning video footage to the Internet to continue exposing the Alabama Forestry Association.
On March 15, we were in Prior Lake, Minnesota to document and expose the Ducks Unlimited pigeon shoot. As in years past, the cruel shooters demonstrated that their violence extends not just to animals, but to people also. One of the killers drove his large SUV off the road at two of our investigators. Another driver threatened investigator Janet Enoch with his pickup.
Going forward into the rest of the year, SHARK will be active in many more states, and we hope to be using our new hovercraft - dubbed the Osprey - for animal rescues both in killing contests and after natural disasters. Other groups aren’t using this technology, but again - nobody does animal protection like we do.
I want to thank the small but dedicated, hard working SHARK team for accomplishing far more than big groups with huge staffs and enormous bank accounts. You might not think it would be a small organization that would be on the leading edge of harnessing technology for animal protection, but most of the big groups focus their technology on fundraising, not activism.
If SHARK had even a fraction of the resources of large organizations, we would have dozens of small, well-equipped teams working across the country accomplishing many more victories for the animals. You don’t fight animal abuses in offices and galas - you fight them where they occur.
SHARK hasn’t forgotten how to make change. We’ll keep going to the killing fields, and the arenas of torture, and anywhere else where we can expose the suffering of our animal friends. I hope I can count on your support to keep us going, because there is a world of cruelty waiting for someone to do the right thing.