DONATE
 

MEDIA RELEASE: Connecticut Legislator Urges Boycott of “Cruel and Unnecessary” Party

MEDIA RELEASE: Connecticut Legislator Urges Boycott of “Cruel and Unnecessary” Party

Stamford, CT (March 10, 2020) — A Connecticut state representative is urging colleagues not to attend an “unnecessary and cruel” reception where members of the State Assembly are being invited to eat hunted animals. The reception is being held by the Connecticut Sportsmen’s Caucus and is sponsored by Friends of CT Sportsmen. The event will take place on Wednesday, March 11th from 5 - 7 pm.

 Legislators were sent an invite which read; “Please join us in supporting Connecticut’s sportsmen and sample game from across the state!” The animals killed to feed reception attendees could include deer, duck, bear and rabbit, among other species wantonly killed by hunters.

Connecticut State Representative David Michel, Democratic House Chair for the Legislators of Animal Advocacy Caucus and member of the Environment and Public Health Committee, will not attend on ethical grounds and is urging fellow legislators to reject this event. 

“I will not be attending this reception which involves the killing of sentient life, messes with the balance of nature and the quality of our environment. I urge my good colleagues not to attend and support this unnecessary and cruel activity,” said Rep. Michel. 

At the start of this year’s legislative session, the Environment Committee failed to raise a bill to ban the sale, trade, and manufacture of animal fur, despite the passage of a similar ban in California last year, as well as the introduction and progress of similar bills in Rhode Island, Hawaii, Minneapolis, and New York City. 

Fur bans and bills to promote the compassionate treatment of animals have notoriously been opposed by hunting groups. Last year, Friends of CT Sportsmen helped kill off legislation that would have prohibited barbaric leghold and body-crushing traps in Connecticut. Their actions have ensured that wild animals and even companion animals continue to suffer horrific injuries and gruesome deaths, such as this opossum crushed in Branford last year, and this dog who was killed in Tennessee.

A dog was recently killed by a trap in Tennessee (CREDIT: It Takes A Village) and an opossum crushed by a trap in Connecticut (CREDIT: Eve Robitaille).

“We hope that Connecticut legislators will follow the lead of Representative Michel by refusing to attend this spectacle of cruelty,” said Marilyn Kroplick, President of In Defense of Animals. “I can think of nothing more perverse than using the taste of animal flesh to reward legislators for opposing humane treatment of Connecticut’s wild animals.”

 

Contact: Matthew Hamity, Campaigns Director, mhamity@idausa.org, 847-721-9802

Join the Conversation: Tweet this news

 

### ENDS ###

 

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization with over 250,000 supporters and a 37-year history of fighting for animals, people and the environment through education, campaigns and hands-on rescue facilities in India, South Korea, and rural Mississippi.

You can support our work by donating

Discover