A different perspective...
Hank,
You probably don't get outside the USA much. If you were surrounded by a plague of <whatever>, then you'd be happy to see the pests removed by any means. This festival seems to make an event out of it. Why are fishing tournaments any different or considered more "humane?" To each his own... personally, I find it hilarious (I'm one sick mutha).
Actually, you don't have to go outside the U.S. to see similar activities. There is a town in Ohio that does the annual "turkey drop." Yes, sports fans, that's right... they fly a large living turkey up to about a 1000' inside a Cessna and then they toss it out the door! Tukey's don't have the kind of wings that will allow them to glide, and when they are on the ground they only fly about 20-50' anyway.
What do you think happens to their wings when launched out the door at 100 knots? Since you aren't a tree-hugg'in vegetarian, I wonder if you ever seen how cows are slaughtered? Now that is a site! I guess the packaging makes you a gentleman and puts you above the rest of us Neanderthals.
R2