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| "Like a Rock Star:" Vice President Dick Cheney appears Thursday in Topeka, Kan., where an enthusiastic crowd greeted him with cheers, sustained applause, and even a few war whoops. |
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"Deadeye" Dick Cheney Steps Up War on Lawyers - Shoots One
Canada.com
Sun Feb 12, 2006
Category: Politics
Area: Corpus Christi
Dick Cheney, the Vice-President of the United States, accidentally shot and wounded a 78-year-old hunting buddy while hunting at a Texas ranch this weekend.
Mr. Cheney, 65, was out with friends at a private ranch in Kenedy County late on Saturday afternoon when he accidentally sprayed an elderly companion with shotgun pellets at about 5:30 p.m.
"It appears he was peppered with a shotgun while hunting for quail," Peter Banko, an administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, said in an interview.
Mr. Banko said the victim, lawyer Harry Whittington of Austin, Tex., suffered wounds to his face, neck and chest. He was in stable condition in the trauma intensive care unit late yesterday.
Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch, was a member of the hunting party and witnessed the accident.
She said Mr. Cheney, an experienced hunter, did not realize Mr. Whittington had rejoined the group without announcing himself, which is proper protocol among hunters.
"They had no idea he was there," Ms. Armstrong said.
"A bird flew up, the Vice-President followed it through around to his right and shot, and unfortunately, unbeknownst to anybody, Harry was there and he got peppered pretty good with a spray of 28-gauge pellets," Ms. Armstrong said.
"He was turning, facing the Vice-President, but turning to the right, and it sprayed him across the right side of his face, his shoulder, his chest and along the rib cage area," she said.
Ms. Armstrong said Mr. Cheney's medical team attended to Mr. Whittington before he was taken to the hospital.
She described Mr. Cheney as "an excellent, conscientious shot."
"The person who is not doing the shooting at the point is just as responsible, and should be, as the person actually shooting," Ms. Armstrong said.
Mr. Whittington, a wealthy Republican and donor to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, was taken to hospital at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Local media reported that officials with the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office were investigating the incident.
Mr. Cheney visited Mr. Whittington at the hospital for about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon, Mr. Banko said. The victim's wife and family members spent the day at the hospital.
"Nobody wants this to happen, but it does," Lea Anne McBride, the Vice-President's spokeswoman, told the local newspaper.
Mr. Cheney is an avid hunter and frequent visitor to the Armstrong Ranch, a sprawling, 20,000-hectare spread in south Texas. In October, he spoke at the funeral of Tobin Armstrong, the family's patriarch.
Mr. Cheney's past escapades have raised the ire of both animal activists and political watchdog groups. In December, 2003, he visited a game farm in Pennsylvania. When gamekeepers released 500 pen-reared pheasants, he shot 70 and ordered them plucked and vacuum-packed. The Humane Society of the United States exposed Mr. Cheney's "canned hunt."
Another trip a few week later raised allegations of conflict of interest. In early 2004, it was revealed Mr. Cheney had gone on a duck hunt in southern Louisiana with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an old friend. The trip took place in January, 2004, three weeks after the high court agreed to hear a controversial case involving the Vice-President.
"Vice-President Cheney continues to demonstrate terrible misjudgment with his hunting behaviour," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said in an interview last night.
Mr. Pacelle said Mr. Cheney's hunts represent the worst aspects of the sport -- the "good-ol'-boy network," the use of an "unethical" hunting facility, as well as harming a companion.
"Now he's shot a hunting partner. We really don't understand what his obsession with shooting animals is. Certainly he has plenty of other things to keep him busy."
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