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By Kent Larsen
Stop Allowing Hunting on LDS Land, Requests National Animal Rights Group
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND -- A New York City-based animal rights group
has asked the LDS Church to stop allowing the hunting of animals on
its land. The Fund for Animals, which seeks to stop cruelty to
animals, including hunting, sent a letter to President Gordon B.
Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on
October 11th asking that the sponsored hunts on the Deseret Ranch in
Florida, the Deseret Land and Livestock preserve, and Westlake Farm
in Utah be stopped. LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills would not
immediately comment on the letter.
The fund's request comes after The Salt Lake Tribune ran a guest
editorial from Mac Madsen arguing against the Church's policy of
selling tickets to hunt elk or moose on the Church's Deseret Land and
Livestock and Westlake Farm, located along the southwest shore of
Utah lake. Madsen, whose editorial was part of a paper he presented
at the annual Sunstone Symposium, apparently learned of the practice
in a July 10, 2000 article in the Deseret News, which interviewed the
LDS missionary couple that runs the operation and described it in
detail.
According to Madsen and to The Fund for Animals, the Church leases
land on its giant Florida ranch, Deseret Ranch, located near Orlando,
Florida, to hunters. Deseret Land and Livestock sells hunting permits
during the hunting season for as much as $11,000 per animal, and
Westlake Farm sells tickets to hunt geese, ducks, pheasants and doves
for as much as $1,500, and church workers bait the birds.
Madsen's editorial claims that hunting for sport is clearly at odds
with LDS teachings. Citing LDS leaders and thinkers from Joseph Smith
to Joseph Fielding Smith and Hugh Nibley, Madsen claims that "Mormon
scriptures condemn the unnecessary killing of animal life and at the
same time instruct members regarding their stewardship and
accountability pertaining to God's animal creations."
Madsen isn't the first to criticize the Church's preserve. LDS Church
member Jim Catano wrote an editorial for the online vegetarian
website VegSource in December 2000. In that article, Catano also
found the practices on the Church's property at odds with Church
teaching. He also contacted the LDS Church's Public Affairs
department, which declined to respond to the issue.
In spite of the Church's silence on the issue in the past, The Fund
for Animals program coordinator, Norm Phelps, is hopeful, "I think we
have a real possibility that we will get the desired response because
the LDS are sincere. I really expect them to eliminate it." Others at
the organization were more blunt. National Director Heidi Prescott
said, "Operators of commercial hunting grounds sell animals to people
who kill them for amusement. That is unethical, inhumane, and
biologically unsound." And The Fund's Executive Vice President,
Michael Markarian, added, "All we're asking the Church to do is
follow its own teachings that forbid hunting except in cases of
extreme hunger. And no one who can pay $11,000 to kill a single elk
can claim to be fighting off starvation."
While not as widely known as the ASPCA and World Wildlife Fund, the
Fund for Animals is an active and well-established group. Founded in
1967 by author and humanitarian Cleveland Amory, the organization
seeks to speaking out against egregious forms of animal cruelty,
following the motto, "We speak for those who can't." The organization
claims to be a eading opponent of sport hunting, commercial trapping,
and other egregious acts of cruelty to wild animals through
education, legislation, litigation and hands-on care.
Source:
Animal rights group calls on Mormon church to stop hunts
Phoenix AZ Republic (AP) 17Oct01 N1
Associated Press
Church Is Sacrificing Principle for Profit
Salt Lake Tribune 30Sep01 ON1
By Mac Madsen
Fund for Animals Calls Upon LDS to "Walk the Talk" by Ending Commercial Hunting on Church Land
The Fund for Animals Press Release 17Oct01 N1
See also:
LDS Vegetarian Questions Church's Hunting Preserve
Missionary Couple Tends Isolated Farm
The Fund for Animals
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