Red Hawk Down

The sports media was buzzing last week with the news that the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) tour player Tripp Isenhour had been charged with killing a hawk with a golf shot. Isenhour apparently became infuriated with the noise the bird was making as he tried to film a golf video prophetically entitled “Shoot Like a Pro” on the Grand Cypress Golf Course in Florida. According to court documents, when the bird perched within 75 yards of him, the golfer said “I’ll get him now,” and began taking pot shots. One of them hit the red-shouldered hawk, and it fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

All this occurred on December 12, and Isenhour clearly counted on the incident passing by unnoticed. But when the charges of animal cruelty and killing a migratory bird became public last week, the resulting scandal was more reminiscent of the Michael Vick dog-fighting furor last year than the joke that a sound engineer at the shoot suggested Isenhour had intended. Florida newspapers opined that Isenhour was a hardened animal abuser, while the PGA contemplated suspending his tour card. By late last week, he was apologizing to animal lovers nationwide, noting feebly that he’d once adopted shelter cats.

The reaction provides an insight into our natural empathy with certain animals. Jeffrey Masson ’64, a bestselling author on the emotions of animals, told me that the golf incident reflects an instinctual human affinity for pets and wildlife, heightened by the exposure that modern media gives us to these creatures. “We’re so similar emotionally to animals, but we only believe it when we see it for ourselves… and now with nature documentaries and YouTube videos we’re seeing it.”

Animal abuse shocks us as an affront to that emotional connection, and our culture reflects this. Animal Precincts, a television show that follows New York City animal cruelty investigators as they crack down on animal abuse crimes, has been one of Animal Planet Channel’s top rated shows since its 2001 release, and has spawned five spin-off series from Animal Cops Houston to Miami Animal Police.

The law is slowly reflecting this growing attitude. Felony level animal cruelty statutes now exist in 43 states and Congress has begun to pass federal laws against cruelty. It was the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, signed into law last May by President Bush, which was used to sentence Michael Vick to 23 months in prison.

But there’s still an odd inconsistency in our attitude towards animals, and it’s felt hardest by the ten billion farm animals we slaughter every year for food, and the uncounted millions used by the animal testing industry. These animals don’t appear on the Animal Planet Channel, nor does the media monitor their individual plights. Masson notes that while his two books on highly popularized animals—When Elephants Weep and Dogs Never Lie about Love —quickly sold over a million copies, it was a harder task to market his recent book on farmed animals’ emotions.

Sadly, this cultural trend is also reflected in our nation’s laws. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) explicitly exempts laboratory mice, rats, and birds from its definition of “animal,” and ignores farmed animals entirely, while state animal cruelty laws typically exempt “common agricultural practices.”

In New Jersey, poultry company Ise America has used such exemptions to defend disposing of unwanted live chicks in a trashcan. In a court case in the fall of 2000, the company’s lawyer opined, “how chickens are discarded, falls into agricultural management practices of my client. And we’ve had—we’ve litigated this issue before in this county with respect to my client and how it handles its manure.” When the trial judge questioned whether there is a difference between manure and live animals, the company’s lawyer pointed to current laws and replied, “No, your honor.”

So why are we appalled by cruelty to a hawk but indifferent to chickens treated as trash? Masson argues that the problem is not human malice, but rather a lack of exposure to certain animals. He suggests that as more people begin keeping hens as pets, and learn more about the emotional intelligence of pigs and horses, attitudes are changing. “There’s a whole new animal consciousness arising, and it’s against cruelty to any animal.”

Maybe in the future hawk killers won’t be the only animal abusers held to account.


Lewis E. Bollard ’09 is a social studies concentrator in Kirkland House. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.