Dear Friends,

On March 31, 2012, SHARK was present on the Delaware River while an illegal live pigeon shoot was held at the Philadelphia Gun Club (PGC). We had two tiny boats rescuing pigeons that were falling into the river. The PGC had a larger boat out to try to intimidate our boats, plus two men on the river bank shooting at escaping pigeons. The PGC also had a man named Darryl Bogart who was sometimes on foot, and sometimes in a kayak.

Darryl Bogart in his kayak

Early in the day, Mr. Bogart tried to agitate SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz, claiming SHARK was responsible for the shooters being on the bank killing pigeons and even said we were "dumb." Stu merely ignored Mr. Bogart's troublemaking.

Mr. Bogart also tried to start trouble with SHARK president Steve Hindi when Steve picked up a wounded pigeon on the river shore. Bogart tried to claim he wasn't with the pigeon shooters, but since he had a hat on with the logo of the pigeon shooters, he wasn't terribly convincing.

Later in the day, a shot pigeon fell on the shore line and Steve again went to retrieve the bird - only to have Bogart, race up behind him, colliding with Steve and crashing right onto the pigeon. Steve said Bogart was thrashing at him, and seemed to be trying to take him down.

Steve hit Bogart twice, and that ended Bogart's attack. Steve walked back to his boat, and took it back on the river and called 911 to report the altercation.

The gun club also called the police claiming Bogart had been assaulted. The Bensalem Police responded. The police took a picture of Mr. Bogart's left ear, and in a police report described it as "slight reddening." The police declined to charge Steve. Mr. Bogart's claim of an assault, when it was he who started the altercation, was kind of funny.

Two weeks later, Mr. Bogart filed a private criminal complaint and this is where the debacle stopped being funny. According to Mr. Bogart, he had received what amounted to a full-fledged beat down. He had a long list of supposed injuries that, as time went on, continued to grow. Mr. Bogart's claims of what happened also morphed from an altercation to a violent action movie.

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler has close ties to the PGC and has on many ocassions protected them from prosecution. Now Heckler chose to waste tax dollars on his personal vendetta against SHARK and Steve. Suddenly, Steve was facing serious jail time. This case was an outrageous abuse of power by Heckler, but something we've come to expect from the DA who is in the pocket of the pigeon shooters.

Steve's jury trial began on January 31, 2013, exactly ten months after the altercation. Steve had the benefit of two police officers testifying in his favor.

Bensalem police officer Brian Celauro noted a lack of visible injuries to Mr. Bogart the day of the incident. This was especially damaging to Mr. Bogart, who by the time of trial was claiming to have been "severely injured," to have suffered a broken, bleeding nose, chipped tooth, spatial disorientation, that he had been knocked unconscious, ringing in his ears, bleeding ear, concussion, drooping eye, and much more.

NONE of these outrageous claims were supported by any police documentation whatsoever. It should also be mentioned that Mr. Bogart is considerably bigger than Steve. It should also be mentioned that Mr. Bogart refused medical treatment when it was offered by Officer Celauro.

Interestingly, Bensalem Police Officer Brian Celauro wrote a very fair and accurate report, and that was an important starting point for the case. We haven't had much luck finding a good police officer in Bensalem, which caters to the pigeon shooters, so Officer Celauro was a welcomed exception.

Another police officer who talked to Mr. Bogart a short time before trial testified that Mr. Bogart claimed he had been beaten by two individuals. Mr. Bogart's stories were growing from the absurd to the outright fantasy.

On February 1, 2013, after a two-day trial, Steve was found not guilty of all charges. There are many we can thank for this victory. We had a great lawyer, an intelligent jury, and a fair and impartial judge, but let us not ignore the importance of complainant Darryl Bogart. Mr. Bogart made so many false and contradictory statements, it was easy to gauge his truthfulness, or in this case his lack thereof.

The pigeon shooters pinned a lot of hope on this case. The killers are desperate to get SHARK away from their slaughters, and they thought that convicting, and quite possibly jailing Steve was the way to do it.

Robert Olsen pointing a loaded gun at Steve Hindi.

In fact, the pigeon shooters and their minions were so hopeful that this would be a critical blow to our efforts, some of them came in for the jury verdict. We snapped a photo (see below) of Darryl Bogart, Robert Olsen and Joseph Solana Jr. Solana holds  pigeon shoots at his canned hunt club. Robert Olsen the thug who pulled a loaded semi-automatic handgun on Steve Hindi and Janet Enoch in 2011 is employed by Solana.

The pigeon shooters were there to celebrate and gloat once the jury returned a guilty verdict. But then an amazing thing happened in Bucks County - Justice!!!

Darryl Bogart, Robert Olsen and Joseph Solana hoping and waiting for a guilty verdict against Steve Hindi. They wasted their time - Steve was declared "Not Guilty" as he should be.

Solana snorted when the jury foreperson declared, "Not Guilty," and the pigeon shooters stormed out of the courtroom.

The very next day we were again outside the Philadelphia Gun Club, where the rich boys and girls held another pigeon slaughter. Steve enjoyed his favorite pastime, which is flying an "Angel" aircraft, and filmed the shoot - documenting the animal cruelty.

Meanwhile, investigator Stu Chaifetz took the Guppy, SHARK's inflatable boat, across the river to the edge of the PGC's property. There he was threatened and attacked by none other than Darryl Bogart, the guy who claimed Steve had attacked him ten months earlier.

The difference was that on this day it wasn't raining and Stu had a camera rolling, and Mr. Bogart's words and deeds were documented in this video.

Our battle against Pennsylvania's pigeon shooters continues, and we do not expect their corruption to abate - on the contrary. The outrageous lies of pigeon shoot minion Darryl Bogart just one day after Steve's not guilty verdict is proof of that.

Unfortunately, we don't have anyone for you to call about these illegal and cruel events since the Governor down to the District Attorneys are corrupt and the legislators are weak and ineffective thanks to the NRA. The only ones fighting for the pigeons is SHARK and for our part, SHARK will continue to expose the cruelty, cowardice and corruption of Pennsylvania's shame until pigeon shoots are relegated to dusty pages of history, as a relic of a less evolved era. SHARK travels over 800 miles one way equaling 1,600 miles round trip. In addition to the high price of fuel and vehicle maintenance, there are hotel rooms and meals on the road. These trips are expensive, time consuming and grueling, but someone has to fight for the pigeons.

Please help us continue exposing the illegal pigeon shoots and pursuing costly legal action for the pigeons by sending us a donation. You can use this link to send your donation today.

Pigeon shoots are such horrific events, that often hundreds if not thousands of birds are shot, wounded or killed on a single day. Faced with such a large number of lives destroyed, it's easy to lose sight of the individual bird.

The following video, which was taken at a vicious tower shoot at the Wing Pointe canned hunt club on Saturday, January 26, 2013, will forever make the point that each and every pigeon shot was a living, feeling animal.