Tag Archives: “sportsmen’s” magazine

Response to Hunting Article in AARP Magazine

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As members of AARP, we are shocked to see that your magazine editor felt it was necessary to feature an article on hunting entitled “Where the Heart Is,” in the April/May issue, Volume 59, Number 3B.
Surely you are  aware that the majority of people do Not Hunt, and that shooting with a camera is one of the most popular ways to visit wildlife, not killing them? The the idea (stated in this article) that “as you hunt, you bond with animals” is nonsense. True “bonding” with an animal is simply respecting them, observing them, and letting them live.
The hunting/NRA lobby certainly has enough media venues already, without AARP enabling them to encourage shooting and maiming animals. Why promote such an activity, which clearly is tied to the overall gun violence in our society?
Perhaps you should have an counter-article featuring the blood trail left by the thousands of wounded wild animals who crawl off to die after being shot, or trapped.
Rosemary Lowe, M.A., RN
Marc Bedner

Making Too Much of Hunting?

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Some folks might be thinking that I’m making too much of this whole hunting issue. After all, it’s been a long time tradition practiced by some of our most famous presidents (and infamous vice presidents). How bad could it be?

Well, all you have to do is visit any grocery store magazine rack across America to find out how bad it is. If anything, you’ll see that sport hunting is worse than what I’ve been saying.

Like any other animal exploitation industry out there these days, the deeper you dig, the more shocking the details you’ll uncover. Despite my involvement (some might say obsession) with this issue (to the point of writing a book about it) I guess I really haven’t plumbed the darkest depths of hunting’s heartlessness yet. I found myself genuinely shocked when I saw the wording on the cover of an Alaskan “sportsmen’s” magazine in a grocery store check-out line on my way home from visiting relatives yesterday. Partially covering the photo of a grinning hunter posing with his dead “trophy” animal were the words, “Where to Kill the Biggest Critters”!

At least this publication was honest, it came right out and said “kill,” not “harvest” or “take” or any of those other soft-sell terms for animal murder. They know they’re evil, and they’re proud of it. Among the other articles featured was “Learning from Ted Nugent.” That should give you some idea of the intellect level of the magazines’ readership. 

But this rag is not just for sale in some backwoods enclave or at the rat-hole mini-mart where Bubba stops in for beer and beef jerky. I came upon it at an upscale grocery store by a ferry landing right across the Puget Sound from the supposedly progressive city of Seattle. This stuff is wide spread and insidious.

So what kind of awful, sick things were inside that magazine? I didn’t have the stomach to pick it up and look. Maybe next time…

Wildlife Photography Copyright Jim Robertson