A New York-based animal rights group called Wildlife Watch is attempting to exploit the 9/11 terrorist attacks to push its anti-hunting agenda. According to Wildlife Watch, terrorists could use hunting season to launch terrorist attacks (I’m not making this up).
According to Wildlife Watch’s Anne Muller, hunting “is just a wonderful opportunity for someone who would want to do a terrorist act. They don’t have to report their whereabouts and can be lurking anywhere. They can lurk in groups.” The group elaborated on that view in a press release saying,
Armed and camouflaged individuals can get close to chemical, agricultural, business facilities, gas pipelines, electrical powerlines, substations, transformers and airports. Local police and environmental conservation officers will merely slough off concerns saying that the individuals are ‘just hunting.’
For its part, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation understands the real message that Wildlife Watch is trying to communicate. “We take our direction from law enforcement professionals, not groups that would attempt to use the war on terrorism to advance their own agenda,” said spokesman Peter Constant.
Wildlife Watch posted a message on an animal rights e-mail list recently asking people to send letters to various New York officials demanding a suspension of the hunting season, which is scheduled to begin on Nov. 19. It included a sample letter which, among other things, said,
Hunting is not a necessity, true subsistence hunters (those who depend on the meat) are less than 1/10th of 1% of the population. Because the wildlife management agencies are benefiting, and their bureaucratic survival depends on the use of firearms and ammunition, it is they who are putting the rest of us at risk. Their claim that hunting conditions pose no threat to the welfare of society is self-serving and doesn’t allow us to prevent against possible terrorist occurrences.
Actually, from here it seems like the animal rights activists who are desperately trying to convince the public that they are still relevant.
Source:
N.Y. wildlife group calls hunting a terror threat. Fox News, November 10, 2001.
Letters needed to suspend hunting in NY State. Wildlife Watch, e-mail communication, November 14, 2001.