Exclusive | Pigeon-costumed activists cry fowl over NYC pet shop as cops try to defuse tensions

Flock off!Pigeon-costumed bird-lovers Sunday clashed with employees of a pigeon-supply store in Brooklyn – where the screaming matches were so intense they had to be broken up by cops.Animal-rights activist Tina Piña Trachtenburg corralled roughly a dozen fellow bird enthusiasts to join her outside Broadway Pigeon & Pet Supplies to protest owners Michael and Joey Scott over allegations they illegally kidnap and sell Big Apple pigeons to Pennsylvania hunters for target practice.Trachtenburg, known as Mother Pigeon, previously told The Post she believes the Scotts raided a flock she feeds at Maria Hernandez Park fewer than two miles away April 1 to restock their bird supply.Netting pigeons on public property, including city parks, is illegal and considered animal abuse, according to the city’s website.Pigeon shoots are illegal in New York, but they are still legal in Pennsylvania, and while it does not appear to be illegal for a New York business to provide the birds for them, activists say it is beyond cruel.The Scotts argued that the activists are pigeonholing the wrong people — with the brothers claiming they breed the birds they sell and aren’t required to ask what their buyers do with them.

“I can’t say that somebody didn’t come in here that I don’t know and then bring them [to Pennsylvania],” he told The Post, likening the sale of pigeons to selling feeder fish or mice used as snake food.“That’s not my business to ask what they’re doing with the birds,” Joey said.Back in July 2008, the store’s lawyer admitted that the shop sold birds to a pigeon broker in charge of a pigeon shooting tournament in Pennsylvania, The Post reported.Many pigeons used for Pennsylvania target practice are illegally trapped in New York City and transported across state lines, according to a 2018 report from the New York City Bar Association.The report found that some of the birds “suffered a slow and painful death, were denied veterinary care, and in ...