Animal rights activists plan to demonstrate Saturday outside the Long Beach Township municipal building, demanding the removal of the township attorney for his conduct at a Pennsylvania pigeon shoot.
The attorney, Richard Shackleton, used vulgar language (the f-word and the c-word) to describe a woman who videotaped him at a Feb. 20 pigeon shoot. An animal-rights group, Showing Animals Respect and Kindness or SHARK, is trying to halt such events.
Shackleton won't apologize and says the group has been harassing gun club members at pigeon shoots, which are legal in Pennsylvania. He accused the group of "invading the privacy and libeling'' the gun club.
"This is the most challenging type of shooting that there is in this country,'' he said. "This is practiced all over the world.''
Steve Hendi, the group's president, doesn't believe "taxpayers should be subsidizing what he is doing.''
An animal rights activist, Stuart Chaifetz, confronted Shackleton at an April 9 board of commissioners meeting, asking him to apologize.
"I'm happy to say that, what I said, I meant every word of it,'' Shackleton responded.
When asked if he would reconsider his statement toward the woman, Shackleton said, ``Absolutely not.''
Mayor Joseph Mancini says he is offended by the language Shackleton used, but added he was off duty and not representing the
township.
"The bottom line is that we are offended by the language that he used, and we do not condone it,'' Mancini said. "He was not working for the township, nor did he have anyone from the township with him during the incident. This happened on his own time. How can we be held responsible?''
Shackleton says he plans to participate in future pigeon shoots.
