Jimmy Kimmel is un-American + Tripp Isenhour is a bird killer.

Rob Lowe played for a charity golf tournament in Iowa, and hit and killed a goldfinch with a golf ball. This happened (Defamer) over a year ago, in June of 2007, even making the hit list on TMZ, but on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, Rob isn’t much of a conversationalist, so this was “new” to us!

Photo from this NatureSound site.

I’ve never seen a goldfinch out here, but I fed many of them back east. They are sweet, beautiful birds, and are kept as pets in Europe. Here’s a vid of a canary-goldfinch (as they are close enough in genus to breed). So besides killing a protected state bird, and then making fun of it, Lowe may have killed someone’s pet, named Goldie.

According to some reports, Lowe was quite disturbed about it. Is that why the picture shows him holding the bird up like a trophy? Maybe that’s why on Kimmel he had all the stats, saying it was something like 7 trillion to one that his golf shot did that. (The comments on various sites are, of course, totally predictable: birdies, birdies, and more birdies.)

In Iowa, the goldfinch is the state bird. Lowe said he had to sneak out the back way, so as not to get “arrested.” Stop, Rob, I’m getting too turned on.

Then Kimmel said, “What could have been better? Maybe something bigger, like a bald eagle.”

You know, the federal bird of the USA. Perhaps his next comedy routine will be How to Kill California Condors.

Accidents happen, but it’s too bad Lowe didn’t use this incident for good, instead of evil. (Youtube of the Kimmel interview is here.)

While looking up this news item, I came across another golf and bird incident that wasn’t an accident at all, and is really quite shocking, from Golf.com. Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour became angry while filming “Shoot Like A Pro” on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf Club when a squawking red-shouldered hawk roughly 300 yards away forced another take.

He drove closer to the bird in his golf cart and starting hitting balls at it. The bird didn’t move and Isenhour gave up and drove away.

Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

Isenhour allegedly said, “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.

“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

…

Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot, said hitting the bird was “basically like a joke to (Isenhour).”

“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” Senger said. “He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that’s, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet away?”

Senger said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it.

In this case, the Humane Society stepped up:

“Because of the high profile nature of this case, the PGA needs to take steps to address its interest and to make it clear that they don’t condone animal cruelty,” said Dale Bartlett, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

From NBCSports:

Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour said it was a “one-in-a-million” golf shot that killed a protected hawk and that he was only trying to scare the bird he now faces criminal charges for killing.

Liar, liar, farking golf ball on fire.

He was sentenced last month:

The 40-year-old pro golfer, accused of killing a protected hawk with a golf shot in December, was ordered Friday to work 100 hours of community service, spend one year on probation, pay $500 in court costs and complete four hours of anger-management classes.

Iowa, you might want to take a look at Florida and show some honor next time.

Me, I’m no longer going to look for Jimmy Kimmel in Costco anymore.