PGA Golfer Tripp Isenhour has been charged with killing a protected red shouldered hawk with a well-aimed golf shot while filming a golf video "Shoot Like a Pro". Apparently, the hawk started singing while the video shoot was being conducted.The golfer first tried to to hit the bird as it sat in a tree about 300 yards away from the video shoot but those attempts were not successful. However, after the hawk moved to a closer tree and started singing, Isenhour again aimed at the the bird, announcing, "I'll get him now."
Investigators allege that after about 10 tries, Isenhou which the hawk with one of his shots and knocked it out of the tree. After killing the bird, which fell 30 feet from its perch, Isenhour remarked, "I didn't think I would hit it," according to witnesses.
The dying hawk, "bleeding from its nostrils, its mouth opening and closing slowly," was later buried on the golf course. Isenhour has been charged in Orange County (Fla.) Court with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird.
Reminds me of a girl named Donna I went to school with. On a field trip, we stopped at a park for lunch. Donna went down to the pond and saw a mama duck leading her 5 ducklings on a swim. Naturally, Donna thought it would be great fun to throw rocks at them. After five or six tries, she eventually hit a baby duck which promptly rolled over on its side and died. Donna cried the rest of the day (good) and didn't come back to school the rest of the week (I always liked to imagine she wound up in therapy for that).
While Donna's conduct was repulsive even for a child, Isenhour is 39 year old adult. When I first saw the headline on this, I thought, "Oh, great, the audobon society has got their undies all in a bundle again." I thought it was just an accident like when Randy Johnson, then pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, killed a seagull (or possibly a dove) with a pitch. Johnson, a real jerk most of the time, was actually upset by the incident. And it was obviously a fluke occurrence. Not the result of repeated attempts of cruelty.
I don't know what the penalties are but I hope this takes Isenhour of the tour for a good long while. You can always tell bad people by how they treat animals and I know all that I need to know about Isenhour now.
