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Animal rights activists protest;
officials investigate incident
as possible poaching
BY ERIN ALBERTY
The Salt Lake Tribune
State and local officials have launched
a criminal investigation into the stomping
of a pheasant Friday at a high school
football game in Davis County.
The pheasant wandered onto the football
field during the game between American
Fork and Viewmont High schools, delaying
the second half of the game.
It was chased onto the Viewmont sideline,
where an adult stomped on it and killed it.
American Fork police and state
regulators on Monday began investigating
the case as possible poaching, said Lt.
Scott White, fo the state Division of
Wildlife Resources, Pheasant hunting season
begins Nov. 6 he said.
Even if pheasant season had been under
way, the stomping may have violated laws
that regulate how game can be hunted,
White said. |
"There are certain ways you can...kill
a pheasant, "he said, and stomping on
them is not one of them.
Investigators have not yet
determined who stomped on the bird,
White said.
Animal rights advocates called for
legal action after reports of the stomping
appeared in media coverage of the game.
"That was deliberate, to...show (the
students) how to go for the kill," Anne Davis
coordinator of www.henryslaw.com, a
Web site that tracks animal cruelty cases
in Utah.
Humane Society of Utah Executive
Director Gene Baierschmidt called the
stomping "in poor taste."
"That bird didn't want to be on
the football field any more that the
players wanted it to be there,"
Baierschmidt said in a statement.
"Many of the students who witnessed
the stomping may not remember what
they learned in school that week, and
they may not even remember much
about the game itself," he said. "But
the memory of this cruel act will
undoubtedly remain." |