Animal rights activists claim that thousands of birds have been harmed by Topgolf’s giant nets. They say the company has not done enough to safely free the birds caught in the 120-foot-tall nets over the past eight years.
Legal Action Network for Animals president Nora Marino demanded in a letter to Topgolf that the company acquire equipment to free the birds, “within a reasonable amount of time” using “only qualified and/or licensed wildlife rescuers and/or rehabilitators.”
“It is our opinion that when any bird is trapped in your netting, and is consequently caused to suffer, be injured, and/or die . . . that is an act of animal cruelty,” and that is a violation of the law in the state of New York, she claimed, according to a New York Post report.
Several thousand birds are estimated to have gotten stuck in Topgolf nets
“Assuming there are 103 120-foot nets with an average catch of five birds per year over the last eight years — then 4,120 birds are affected,” Tampa Bay Raptor Rescue president Barbara Walker told the New York Post. “More importantly, this number can go up exponentially over future years.”
Walker stated that there is no company-wide standard in place and that Topgolf’s methods for eliminating birds “differ from site to site.”
“If they cut one little rung on that net, they may have to replace the entire net, so it’s much cheaper for them to just rip the bird out, break bones, break feathers, break wings,” Marino said.
Barbara Walker recalled a report that a man at the Topgolf in St. Petersburg, Florida, shared with her in February.
“He was sending me videos and telling me that there were eight vultures caught in the net,” Walker told the New York Post. “They were throwing up midair.
“I decided to go out to Facebook, and I put in ‘Topgolf Bird,’ and I found story after story, video evidence after video evidence,” Walker continued. “Fire departments are shooting the birds down with hoses . . . There is one video where a bald eagle is on the ground struggling in the net.”
Some birds are able to eventually free themselves, but not all
In August of this year, a hawk spent more than a day trapped in a net high above Topgolf in Holtsville, New York. News 12 reported that the net’s height made it difficult for anyone to reach the hawk. Eventually, the hawk freed itself on its own and took off.
About a week later, an osprey became trapped in the netting at the Topgolf in Holtsville. Again, the bird was able to eventually free itself.
“We’re very grateful for that because if he was fatigued and he went to fly and he fell down, he would hit like a rock and probably be dead,” said Strong Island Animal Rescue League president Frank Floridia. “It’s two in one week. It’s very frustrating. We see that this is happening and a lot of Topgolf’s all over the country and something needs to be put in place.”
“An average person can’t just go up there and take the hawk or an osprey down,” Floridia told the New York Post. “It has to be a rehabber that knows how to work with animals.”
The New York Post asked Topgolf for comment on the birds and their getting caught in the company’s nets, but they did not reply.