FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, December 9, 1997
CONTACT:
Norm Phelps, 301-739-7087, nphelps@fund.org
Michael Markarian, 301-585-2591, mmarkarian@fund.org
NEW FREEDOM, Pa. -- The Fund for Animals, the nation's largest and most active anti-hunting organization, today asked the New Freedom Christian School in New Freedom, Pennsylvania to stop teaching hunter education in its sixth grade classrooms.
Calling sport hunting "a form of legalized cruelty to animals," Norm Phelps, Program Coordinator for The Fund, wrote in a letter today to Principal Thomas Getz, "In an age of unprecedented violence, most of which is carried out with guns, the idea of any school requiring students to learn to use firearms is offensive; that a school claiming to promote the compassionate gospel of Christ would do so boggles the mind."
According to an Associated Press story which appeared on December 3, Getz teaches a mandatory "outdoors/wildlife appreciation course" for sixth graders that includes a two-week unit on hunting and trapping.
"Mr. Getz' claim that animals have to be killed by hunters to protect them from being killed by cars just doesn't compute," adds Phelps. "It's an effort to deflect public outrage at the idea of a Christian school teaching killing instead of compassion."
The Fund for Animals provided the school with its Youth Education Kit, which includes a video titled "What's Wrong With Hunting," featuring Marv Levy, head coach of the Buffalo Bills, and the booklet, "Think Like the Animal: Questions to Ask Before You Kill". The Fund also offered to send a representative to the New Freedom Christian School to tell the students the animals' side of the story.
Copies of the letter to Principal Getz, and copies of The Fund for Animals' report titled "Killing Their Childhood: How Public Schools and Government Agencies Are Promoting Sport Hunting to America's Children", are available upon request.
