They need prosecutors to cease letting pigeon poachers fly the coop!
Animal advocates gathered at a rally in Manhattan Wednesday to demand District Legal professional Alvin Bragg to crack down on unlawful pigeon catchers — after a serial poacher was caught making an attempt to as soon as once more seize a flock of the birds final week.
Dwayne Daley, 67, was busted caging greater than 25 pigeons in Tompkins Sq. Park within the East Village on April 30, allegedly with plans to promote them hunters in Pennsylvania to make use of in goal apply.
However Daley — who served no jail time for the animal cruelty crime because the crime shouldn’t be bail eligible — ought to have been punished extra harshly, based on chook lovers who flocked to the Excessive Line for the demonstration.
“The enforcement is a joke,” mentioned John Di Leonardo, government director of the animal advocacy group Humane Lengthy Island.
Stephen Yang
“I feel [offenders] have to get fines and jail time. Particularly jail time — they must be afraid to do that,” he mentioned.
Di Leonardo mentioned one other pigeon poacher was busted in Jackson Heights, Queens Sunday partly as a result of “lackadaisical prosecution” has failed to discourage the rising crime.
“The pigeon is the chook and image of New York Metropolis. This inhumane apply have to be stopped as soon as and for all,” mentioned Curtis Sliwa, founding father of the Guardian Angels.
“It’s appalling to know that we allow kidnappers to come back in and scoop them up and there are not any penalties for these actions,” mentioned Sliwa — who spoke on the rally to roughly a dozen supporters.
Tina Trachtenburg, a pigeon caregiver and advocate, added: “[Our] plea is that pigeon poachers turn into jailbirds and pigeons fly free.”
Daley was charged with torturing, injuring and never feeding an animal. He’s recognized to police for kidnapping birds and promoting them for goal apply.
He was arrested whereas in custody Could 1 for separate fees linked to an assault by which he allegedly punched a person within the face in Brooklyn in February 2021.
It’s unlawful to take away any animal from a New York Metropolis park, based on the Parks Division, which mentioned it couldn’t affirm an uptick in pigeon poaching instances.
The Manhattan DA’s workplace mentioned: “Our workplace takes allegations of animal abuse extraordinarily significantly, and the defendant on this case was charged and prosecuted for his conduct.”
