Staci Peters writes:

The fact that I detest reality TV is no secret. Survivor, Trading Spouses, Top Model, Extreme Makeover, Fear Factor, The Apprentice, blah, blah, blah. I don’t care for them at all… in fact, I believe they’re quite trite and completely useless.

They don’t interest me in the least. I wouldn’t use a second of my free time posting about any of them… until I came across this in an e-mail I opened tonight from the Humane Society’s Humanelines.org:

Safari Club International (SCI) has announced the launch of a new television series that will showcase the planned pursuit and killing of exotic animals across the globe. This new series, set to air next September, is the product of a partnership between the Outdoor Life Network, Comcast Television, Orion Multimedia and Image Works, Inc. The Arizona-based SCI fosters and promotes competitive trophy hunting of exotic animals on five continents. Twenty-nine award categories - such as the Africa Big Five, which requires killing a lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo - require the killing of 322 separate species and sub-species of trophy class animals.

Many SCI members take the quick and easy route to this ill-found glory. They shoot captive, often semi-tame animals in canned hunts on preserves or farms (called “estates” by SCI), in North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. SCI is the biggest proponent of “canned hunts” in the world, driving patronage of these deplorable operations.

Make no mistake, gunning down animals for a misguided competition is unconscionable, and reputable media firms should not encourage or promote this needless blood-letting.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact the Outdoor Life Network today and urge the company to disassociate itself from SCI and a television series with this organization. Request that future shows not include the killing or inhumane treatment of animals.

Marc Fein, Senior Vice President of Programming

Deliver your comments directly via the Web here.

What are these people thinking? There’s no “sport” in canned hunts, and as the e-mail so eloquently stated, “gunning down animals for a misguided competition is unconscionable!” Out of control, I tell you! They’re going to hear it from me, and hopefully anyone else who thinks this is entirely absurd!