The NRA evidently names a Country Artist of the Month. Probably on a monthly basis. For some reason. Anyway, in case you missed the news, Trace Adkins got the nod for January. As a nameless PR flack somewhere wrote for him, “I support NRA Country because they share my love of the outdoors and my wish to safeguard America’s hunting heritage. I am Trace Adkins and I am NRA Country.” All of which seems to have the tiresome and inconsequential PETA people in a lather. But not for the reason you’d think…
You’d sort of expect PETA’s petulant publicists to bitch about someone prominent publicly mentioning that they enjoy hunting. As is well established, they press the auto-outrage button on anyone who kills anything with a face, whether it’s for fun, profit, food or any other valid reason. But this time they’ve contorted themselves into an impressively ridiculous position in order to somehow criticize Adkins because a teenager was shot in Texas.
You may have read about the Brownsville fifteen-year-old shot and killed by police after brandishing a realistic pellet gun in school. From all reports and the 911 tapes, it appears to be a justified shoot. He failed to drop the gun when confronted by the cops; the responding officers had no way of knowing the kid wasn’t holding a real gun.
Anyway, it must have been a slow day around the PETA compound because they managed to draw a connection between Adkins’ NRA, uh, honor and the kid in Brownsville. femalefirst.co.uk reports:
But animal rights activists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are using the Texas tragedy to urge Adkins to reconsider his gun stance.
Spokeswoman Wendy Wegner tells Wenn, “The debate over hunting boils down to one question – do we teach our kids to kill or to be kind?
“When an eighth-grade child can be shot and killed by the police for taking a gun to school, perhaps we should be considering the real influence that this blood sport and the Nra’s (sic) promotion of it have on America’s youth.
“Only seven per cent of the American public hunts, and that puts Trace and the Nra way out of step with the rest of the country, which opposes killing for fun”.
Yup. The American public is gonna come around to PETA’s [convoluted] way of thinking any day now. I can feel it. In fact, I’m going to send in a contribution just as soon as I finish this medium rare hamburger.
[via TheGunWire]
I have friends that dont hunt but they support it anyway PETA needs to realise that hunting also teaches about the dangers and safe handling of firearms and that not even 5% of the american public has the same views as them.
The kids parents did not know where he got the bb gun from and obviously had not exposed him to guns and how to use them responsibly. Because guns were a mysterious powerful object to him, he procured a replica because he thought he would be “cool”. If the poor kid only knew.
As long as the kids parents had taught him english, he should have known to drop pellet gun when a police officer pointing a real gun at him told him too. To me the incident sounded much more like suicide by cop.
More likely trigger happy cops putting “officer safety” ahead of protecting and serving. Face it, cops are no longer earning the excessive pay, platinum plated benefits, and early retirements we are forced to pay them. If they don’t want to face the risk, we need to start stripping pay and benefits.
God I hate moral absolutism.
Absolutely.
That’s a curious bit of reasoning at the end:
“Only seven per cent of the American public hunts [citation needed], and that puts Trace and the Nra way out of step with the rest of the country , which opposes killing for fun”
Setting aside the unsourced “7%”, how does it follow that everyone who doesn’t hunt is opposed to hunting? I mean, I don’t hunt but that’s a matter of personal interests. I also don’t race Formula 1 cars, roller blade, practice feng shui or juggle geese. I am not opposed to other people doing so, however.
And who says it’s all “killing for fun”? I’m not a hunter myself, but I’m aware enough to know that not all hunting is recreational, and that there’s a fair amount of hunting that’s actually happening as a means to supply food, and probably more and more in these times, actually.
Thats what I was thinking!
I think most hunting is for food. Scratch the Kodiak Bear and African Cape Buffalo hunts… most of the rest is deer, elk, and moose hunting. My view may be distorted by my experience: Most hunting is undertaken by landowners and their friends, farmers, timber owners, and such. In northern Europe the deer and moose meat is a valuable product. Unchecked, the deer populations wreck crops and increase road accidents. I’ve personally spent many summers eating nothing but deer and moose meat five or six dinners a week. How could more than 7% be involved in such practical activities? Why is doing something only 7% take part in in any way condemnable by that fact? Only 7% probably eat right, exercise enough, and floss their teeth. So that routine is bad?
PETA would certainly oppose geese juggling.
Presumably PETA didn’t make it off of Earth that Was.
I wonder how they feel about arming bears…
I have been approached by many “non hunters” about going hunting. I’m taking some one small game hunting to ease them into it. How about asking the populace who would like to Hunt? PETA would not like the answer.
In my humble opinion, with the possible exception of pure vegitarians we all hunt. It’s just a question of how far removed we choose to be from the act of taking an animal life to harvest the meat.
Funny how so many people can manage to act morally superior by the simple token of hiring their killing done by others.
I do not hunt because it’s darned hard work, and I’m no longer in any shape to safely and humanely take my food on the hoof. Doesn’t mean I don’t give thanks at every meal for those who worked to provide me this bounty for my use.
Lar, I love than image. I now see the non-hunting meat eaters as little lords being carried along in a sedan chair, shouting to their entourage, “there, that cow, shoot it! And you, Gofer, blast that hog over there by the oak tree!” Then he or she has all the field dressing, skinning, and butchering performed by other over-worked servants, untouchable because of the blood on their hands. Yes, it is like that, but it has all been made so easy and sanitary. Poultry, beef, pork. Even if they just eat dairy they are, by proxy, ordering the slaughter of all unproductive cows, or cows temporarily in excess of market demand. These people are cousins of the quiet little lefties with two cats, “lovely gentle cats,”…which are obligate carnivores. Laugh.
Just so you know… juggling geese while rollerblading in the middle of a Formula 1 circuit is REALLY bad Feng Shui. But, if you must do it, be sure to face north while wearing thong underwear backwards. Then you should be OK. 😉
They are as hypocritical as all the other idiots hoping to impose their views on all of humanity by banning certain items or activities:http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
Penn & Teller also have a great episode of their “Bullshit!” series about PETA.
peta always makes me hungry. *goes and grabs some beef jerky from the kitchen*
I live in Portland and count many people who make my views look positively conservative among my friends and acquaintances, but I have met very few people, including vegans, etc., who are opposed to hunting. Many consider it in the only decent way to eat meat or fish – catch it yourself.
Leghorn’s post about hog hunting has piqued my interest. They do sound like the perfect animal to hunt. Nothing to feel too guilty about (vicious, dangerous, harmful, etc.) and, best of all, they’re made of pork! How awesome is that! I’ve still got a lot thinking and research to do, though.
Since feral pigs are a distructive and invasive species, it is your duty to the environment to kill and eat those things.
The pork is just your reward for helping Mother Nature.
Deer are also destructive and invasive. Try replanting a forest with spruce and come back in a year. The deer will have ruined many of the trees. Then they’ll sleep each summer night by crushing a spot in your wheat field. Hunting, especially in cold snowy weather, is very pleasant. The hard work is really the field dressing, skinning, and butchering: To Uncle Lars: Keep hunting. Just get the younger set to do the heavy work, and reward them.
My hunting license fee supports game wardens and what they do along with other related activities which promote the well-being of our wildlife population. Hunters really do put their money where their mouth is. PETA blows!
I hunt because we removed natural predators and deer is mighty tasty. I don’t care if they have a problem with that. If they are for ethical treatment of animals then explain how they are opposed to population control of animals that have no predators any longer. Starving to death is a terrible way to go and that is unfortunately the fate many animals have.
And it can harm not just the prey animals, but threaten the entire ecosystems as well.
Exactly. We have three possible stable ecosystems for deer in my area:
1) Abundant forage with human hunting keeping the population in check.
2) Introducing sizeable populations of large predators to keep the deer population in check – inevitably requiring the shooting of said large predators when they threaten humans or livestock.
3) Decimated vegetation and habitat due to overcrowding, followed by population control by starvation.
Only the third option doesn’t involve shooting animals and it would mean nobody, not even the deer, have the woods to enjoy.
People seem to forget that wild animals don’t go into hospice to die of old age surrounded by family. It generally comes down to predation, starvation, exposure, or disease. When my time comes, I’d much rather be put down with a well-placed slug than be run down by wolves, thank you very much.
Excellent summary. PETA members apparently don’t know much of nature, which IS red in tooth and claw. Perhaps off subject, but does anyone else find it odd that PETA members express so much concern, time, and money preventing hunting….rather than on alleviating the suffering of the many children growing up amidst violence in poor crowded neighborhoods without a father? There are better uses for their humanitarian instinct. Or are they misanthropes? Yes, I think that’s it.
I’m a lifetime member of PETA. “PEOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS” and I like mine with biscuits and gravey.
As for teaching kids…I teach mine to be kind and how to use force to end a threat which can mean a killing. Why do they think the two are mutually exclusive?
What do you expect from people who think that eating a cheeseburger is murder?
Delicious, delicious murder.
As the great philosopher Leary said, “Eggplant tastes like eggplant. But meat tastes like murder and murder tastes pretty GD good, doesn’t it!”
Last I checked, we are SUPPOSED to kill stuff. Eyes in front and K9’s. Yep, the human animal is a predator. I don’t understand why people deny their base instincts and think we anything other than what we are. PETA members are like a circle trying to grow corners.
Yes, but we not nearly the carnivores that say a dog, or especially a cat is. We’re got those bovine like molars at the back there for grinding up plants as well, so it’s pretty clear we’re meant to eat whatever we can find.
Pound for pound, Kitty is awesome!
After three decades of Chocolate Labs we just ended up, gratuitously, with a kitten…well actually three months later it’s a cat. Jeez is she a hunter. She spends most of the day stalking us around the house, attacking, then fleeing. She sits on window sills twitching with frustration that she can’t attack the birds outside. When she sneaks out the door she stalks and attacks squirrels, birds, mice. Ferocious. At three months. Can’t eat anything much but meat. Prefers raw beef. PETA that.
I used to hunt more when we had the farms, but most of it was pest control. It could be interesting. I really have not hunted game animals all that much as they used to be sort of hunted out. I did always enjoy Upland Game Hunting when we had more of the animals around.
Killing the animal is not fun. Everything up until you pull the trigger is fun, but after that, “hunting” bears a suspicious resemblance to “work”.
Fun resumes at the eating part, sometimes the cooking/grilling depending on what it is.
One of my favorite T-shirts reads:
P.eople
E.ating
T.asty
A.nimals
Reminds of the Visa commercials…… one T-shirt $15, gas for the drive $20, ticket to disney $75, horrified look on PETA person’s face………….. PRICELESS!!!!
Spotted a bumper sticker:
“If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?”
Frankly, I find PETA’s prejudice against humans disturbing. When’s the last time they were concerned about zebras being attacked by lions? Or what about the sheer number of fish a grizzly takes every year? Then, there’s the previous example about a cat who seems to enjoy hunting for the sheer sport of it (assuming its owner feeds the cat on a regular basis)! Really, PETA! All these examples should leave you outraged at the inhuman (there’s a pun for the astute reader to enjoy) cruelty that takes place every day …and not a peep from a single PETA person. Frankly, PETA is quite selective in their concern for ethical treatment of animals. I find that quite unethical, indeed!
Cats are all white meat.
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