FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, September 19, 1995
CONTACT:
Norm Phelps or Mike Markarian, (301) 585-2591
In a 27-page report issued today, The Fund for Animals, the nation's largest and most aggressive anti-hunting organization, exposed a massive nationwide campaign by the hunting and firearms industries to promote sport hunting to America's children.
"They're Never Too Young: A Comprehensive Look at How Public Money and Public Agencies are Being Used to Promote Sport Hunting to America's Children" documents the decline of sport hunting in the U.S. and the desperation of the firearms and hunting industries to prevent the demise of a sport that every year brings in $14 billion -- nearly three times what Americans spend on movie theater tickets.
The Fund for Animals' founder and president, best-selling author Cleveland Amory, says of the hunting industry's recruitment efforts, "P.T. Barnum once said that there's a sucker born every minute. But the hunters apparently aren't satisfied. They want to grow suckers."
State wildlife agencies, which are funded by the sale of hunting licenses and an excise tax on firearms and ammunition, have become willing allies of the hunting industry. The agencies use public money and public employees to recruit children through special hunts for children and hunter education classes conducted in public schools. The Fund's report reveals that 30 states plan to conduct children's hunts -- some for as young as six years old -- during the 1995-96 hunting season, and 37 states teach hunter training classes as part of junior high and high school curricula.
Public schools are being bombarded with videos and curriculum units from pro-hunting organizations such as the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The NSSF received $330,000 in federal grants to put pro-hunting propaganda in grade 4-12 classrooms across the country.
Adds Norm Phelps, The Fund's program coordinator and author of the report, "If hunting is taught in our public schools in the 21st century, it will only be taught in history class."
To receive a copy of "They're Never Too Young," please call The Fund for Animals' national campaign office at (301) 585-2591.