FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 16, 1996
CONTACT:
Heidi Prescott, (301) 585-2591, or Heidi@Fund.org
Mike Markarian, (301) 585-2591, or MikeM@Fund.org
PHOENIX, ARIZONA -- At a press conference this morning, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America announced that it has set up a task force to reexamine its policy on granting trophy hunting trips to children. The Foundation, however, condemned animal protection organizations and Hollywood celebrities for criticizing the hunt, and backed its decision that a Minnesota teenager is currently in Alaska hunting a Kodiak bear.
"The Make-A-Wish Foundation should continue its good work for children without adding more death and violence to the world through trophy hunting," says Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals. "They know they have a public relations problem and they are trying to address it. But there is still a doomed bear in Alaska who does not have a dying request."
The Fund for Animals, a New York-based animal protection society, began dialogue with Make-A-Wish back in February over the proposed bear hunt, when The Fund offered to purchase camera equipment for the boy so he could still take his trip to Alaska and "shoot" a bear on film. Unfortunately for the organization, its Minnesota chapter chose to make fun of the offer in the press rather than to give it the serious consideration it deserved.
Adds Prescott, "If Make-A-Wish had negotiated with us in the beginning instead of ridiculing people who care about animals, they could have avoided their entire public relations nightmare."
The decision of the Make-A-Wish Minnesota chapter to grant a 17-year-old boy's wish to kill a Kodiak bear in Alaska drew a swarm of criticism from animal protection organizations, Make-A-Wish donors, and the Make-A-Wish chapters in Canada, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver. Actor Pierce Brosnan offered to entertain the teen on the set of his new James Bond movie, Dante's Peak, if the boy turned down the hunting trip. Comedian Kevin Nealon canceled a benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation because the organization refused to call off the hunt.
"The Make-A-Wish Foundation claims it is about loving not fighting," says Cleveland Amory, founder and president of The Fund for Animals and best-selling author. "I wish they would prove it by not killing."