Umm...

Gato_Solo

Out-freaking-standing OTC member
I'm torn between the obvious pun, and the larger nature of what happened.
Read this for yourself, and decide what to go for. Whats really upsetting is the statement here...

Isenhour said he is an animal lover and his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.

...which has nothing to do with what happened.

Meat of the story said:
ORLANDO, Fla. - An animal rights group wants the PGA Tour to take action against player Tripp Isenhour, facing charges for hitting a hawk with a golf shot because it was making noise as he videotaped a TV show.
 

A.B.Normal

New Member
If he hadn't tried repeatedly to hit it ,I'd say no big deal,but he started shooting balls at it when it came closer. Even after he came close he continued to try and hit it.
 

greenfreak

New Member
“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

“As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset,” Isenhour said in a statement issued through his management company, SFX Golf. “I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away.”

...

“We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family’s privacy,” he said.

...

Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot, said hitting the bird was “basically like a joke to (Isenhour).”

“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” Senger said. “He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that’s, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet away?”

:banghead:

If he was truly just trying to scare it away, how many shots does it take before an intelligent person gives up? Maybe the one that whizzed by the bird's head and it didn't move? I call bullshit.

And he makes a request to respect his privacy. HAH!

While I admit the Red-Shouldered Hawk's call is loud and piercing and annoying, there are better ways to deal with it. Look at this beauty:

3205389-md.jpg
 

paul_valaru

100% Pure Canadian Beef
I think his punishment should to be pick up the balls on a open driving range, without the armoured buggy.

dealing with trees, sand etc. is part of golf, so should be dealing with anything in nature.
 

Luis G

<i><b>Problemator</b></i>
Staff member
Just have other PGA members take shots at his balls and move on.
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
Charging him is stupid. He had no intent to kill. His actions were not that big a deal. A barking dog or a crying baby would have been removed-that's all he was trying to do.
 

Gato_Solo

Out-freaking-standing OTC member
Charging him is stupid. He had no intent to kill. His actions were not that big a deal. A barking dog or a crying baby would have been removed-that's all he was trying to do.

Actually, charging him is exactly what is called for. Hell...he could've been charged before he actually hit the hawk under the same law. Doesn't matter his intent. He molested a protected species. Comparing a protected species to a barking dog (domesticated animal) or a crying baby is apples to oranges.
 

spike

New Member
Charging him is stupid. He had no intent to kill. His actions were not that big a deal. A barking dog or a crying baby would have been removed-that's all he was trying to do.

No intent to kill? He certainly knew that could be one possible outcome of smacking golf balls at a bird. Charge him.
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
No intent to kill? He certainly knew that could be one possible outcome of smacking golf balls at a bird. Charge him.

Another possible outcome could be they fall in love & have inter-species babies but it's not likely.
 

spike

New Member
You don't understand the difference between an accident and purposely aiming for a protected species do you Jim?
 

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
It is pretty sad when we put more stock in the rights of an animal to live than a human. Read the last paragraph of the story. We've all heard the hawk killing story; but how many here know the name of the girl who was murdered or that her killing had even happened? Women are being murdered at universities and there is no suspect for most of the killings.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336069,00.html

Pro Golfer Blames Hawk's Death on 'One-in-a-Million' Accidental Shot; Humane Society Not Happy
Friday, March 07, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. — Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour said it was a "one-in-a-million" golf shot that killed a protected hawk and that he was only trying to scare the bird he now faces criminal charges for killing.

Isenhour spoke on the Golf Channel's PODS Championship post-round show Friday, his first public comments since news broke that he killed the protected bird Dec. 12.

Investigators say Isenhour got upset because the hawk's loud chirps interrupted the filming of his instructional video. He was charged Wednesday in Orange County Circuit Court with animal cruelty and killing a migratory bird, charges that carry a combined 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.

"What happened was, you know, the bird was making noise, but the fact that I was upset was inaccurate," Isenhour said. "There were several others trying to get the bird to simply fly away. That's all we were trying to do. The bird was high up in the tree and I was simply just tying to hit the tree to make the bird fly away."

...

PGA Tour players didn't seem too shaken.

"It's a bad break for the bird, but it sounds like there are a lot of other things people should be worried about," Mark Calcavecchia said.

"He probably just didn't think. He didn't think, 'If I actually hit the bird, what happens?"' Lee Janzen said. "A girl from North Carolina got murdered yesterday and there's no suspect. That's a lot more important. If it could have nicked him, scared him off, we'd never have heard of this. Unfortunately, the bird got hit."
 

chcr

Too cute for words
Prosecutors say the 39-year-old player took several shots at the hawk, first driving to it in a golf cart after the bird interrupted filming from 300 yards away. When the bird later landed within 75 yards, Isenhour’s shots got closer until he eventually hit and killed the hawk. It fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils, witnesses told the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

If there was no intent, why did he keep firing golf balls at the bird? Because it was interupting the filming of his golf video? F@ck him and everyone that stood around and watched him. Any thing that happens to them could be considered stupidity tax IMO.
 

spike

New Member
It is pretty sad when we put more stock in the rights of an animal to live than a human. Read the last paragraph of the story.

It would be except nobody is putting more stock in the rights of an animal. If they catch who murdered the girl do you actually think they be charged with a lesser crime?
 
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