The images in the following program are highly sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals, praying that you will help to stop it.

This is the Stop Animal Cruelty series on Supreme Master Television. This week is the second and final part of two-part program on the appalling practice of hunting wildlife.

The US-based non-profit organization, In Defense of Animals’ (IDA’s) stated mission is “to end animal exploitation, cruelty, and abuse by protecting and advocating for the rights, welfare, and habitats of animals, as well as to raise their status beyond mere property, commodities, or things.” Since 1983 this group has been a leader in animal protection, including in the area of halting the murder of wildlife.

Over the years In Defense of Animals has stopped bow hunting of the Tule Elk and killing of peacocks at Point Reyes National Seashore, a park in California, USA, halted a planned aerial killing of wolves in Alaska, USA, prevented a buffalo hunt from going forward in New Mexico, USA, caused the cancellation of a hunting competition that would have meant the deaths of up to 1,000 bobcats, coyotes, cougars, and foxes in a single weekend in Arizona, USA, and successfully halted a bear hunt in New Jersey, USA.

Today’s program features further excerpts from an episode of the In Defense of Animals-produced television series “Undercover TV” entitled “What’s Wrong With Hunting?”

Undercover TV is hosted by Mr. Kenneth G. Williams, a vegan professional body builder from the United States and a spokesperson for In Defense of Animals’ veganism campaign. This superb athlete made sports history in 2004, when he won third place at the prestigious Natural Olympia bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas, USA and became the first vegan bodybuilding champion in the United States.

Welcome to Undercover TV. Today we have a special presentation of the video, “What’s Wrong With Hunting?” This video exposes the animal cruelty that occurs during hunting. Some of the images are graphic and viewer discretion is advised.

If you look at the way that hunting language is used, even that is brainwashing because when you have a hunter talking about culling, harvesting, what they’re really doing is they’re killing a living being. They’re not harvesting a crop. But if you use that type of language, that’s going to then take away that animal’s personality in your mind. And so it’s to their advantage to make us think of animals as things. Animals aren’t things.

If you look at pain receptors, which are called “nociceptors” from Latin, in any animal, a non-human animal as well as a human animal, anatomically and physiologically they’re identical – same chemistry, same wave transmission, same sending impulses up the leg or up the arm. So if the receptors are the same and the chemistry is the same, we can assume that pretty much the same impact is perceived.

The other thing is logically, think what pain is telling you. Again, pain is to be interpreted as such an overriding negative stimulus that you respond to the pain before you have time to think about it. If it were not that negative a stimulus, then the species wouldn’t survive. I really don’t think that our pain is any more significant to us than the animal’s pain is to that animal.

We may be dealing with a different frame of reference, my philosophical or experiential background may be different than a beaver’s and marten’s, but still the pain and terror that I might feel because of a serious injury or a terrifying experience are the worst and biggest things in my consciousness. Similarly, the pain and terror for that beaver and marten is the worst in their experience of their consciousness.

The very first operation that I ever remember, we had a red-tailed hawk brought in to us, and it had been shot. Now there’s no way you can shoot a red-tailed hawk legally. It’s a protected species, it’s a migratory species, protected under international law, protected under federal law, protected under state law, there are incredible fines associated with (hurting) it.

This one had been brought in and it had a shattered elbow. And so we put it down on the table and the kids gathered around because that’s how we do it; we do it right in the classroom and we had the operating table there. They began to assist me and I was assisting them. And a little red haired girl, her name was Jenny Lynch, she was assisting me on the left side. She was holding some sutures.

And as we got into that, trying to repair that shattered elbow, Jenny looked up at me and she said, “How could anybody try and kill something that beautiful?” Well, I was a very intelligent, very gifted science teacher; and very gifted, intelligent science teachers know everything.

So I looked down at her, at Jenny, and I said, “Jenny, that’s just the way the world is.” What bothered me was the answer that I gave Jenny, “That’s just the way the world is,” which I look back at that now was an indictment of the world, that’s not the way the world is.

We are better than that. We are better than creatures that simply go out in the woods, armed with a gun, and shoot something from ambush just for pleasure. That is not how I see humanity, not how I see the human race.

Hunters hide and shoot from ambush. In the old West, they had a name for people who shot from the ambush, they called them “bushwhackers.” And there was no lower form of life in the West than a bushwhacker. Hunting is bushwhacking.

If someone I loved wanted to go hunting, the first thing I’d do is ask them why? Why are they going hunting? And the people who go sport hunting, they do it for the fun of it. And I guess because they think it’s macho and they have something to prove. Anybody who thinks that they’re more of a man because they carry a gun and shoot some animal that doesn’t even know they’re there, sorry it just doesn’t wash with me.

I think a lot of women feel that way in terms of you’re not more sexy or more manly because you’re able to shoot something. There is much more honor and courage to saving a life than to taking one, that’s the bottom line. And when you’re taking a life for the fun of it, there’s no honor in that and there’s no courage whatsoever.

We are, and we do what we’re taught. And we are not, and we do not do what we are not taught. And that’s the reason why I’m a teacher. And that’s the reason why everybody has got to be a teacher. Now I have a great hope that kids are going to begin to teach kids, and I’ve seen that happening a lot. I see that with my kids, they teach their parents, they teach other kids. And I tell you what, they’re a lot more honest than when I went to school.

Seventh graders know more than some people in their 60’s about what’s wrong with the world and what we need to do, and things that we need to make in the way of changes in our life, whether it’s our diet or how we treat our own suburban back lawn – chemical lawn treatment versus backyard habitat.

They’re so much more aware than people who are 30, 40, 50 years older. And if they’re starting with that awareness at such a young age, my hope is that we can build on that and end up with something very positive in the next generation.

The children of Rosewood, Oregon (USA) were brought to Washington. DC (USA). A whole class, by their teacher, and that teacher brought these kids to go into the offices of the Congressman not just from Oregon, but all over. And that was the main reason; one of the biggest bills ever passed for animals was passed because about two dozen kids from one little school in Oregon went to Washington DC and made such a fuss.

A lot of families have dogs and cats and those are animals also. And if they can see their own pets at home, the way as they see the wildlife that’s out in nature, the same way, and have the same respect, I think they could be able to get it. They have every right to be here as much as we do. Nature is just such a prize that was given to us, and I think we really take it for granted.

Next time you’ve got your cat or your dog on your lap, and you’re sitting there petting them, think about them, and what you feel about them. And then think about her. What really is the difference?

I don’t want you to do something cowardly, and I think hunting is a cowardly act. I want you to do something heroic. I want you to do something worthwhile. I don’t want you to go out and deride your enjoyment from inflicting pain and misery and death on another living creature.

Thanks for watching Undercover TV. If you would like more information about Undercover TV, please visit the In Defense of Animals website at IDAUSA.org Thanks for watching.

How can we help end hunting? We can talk to our friends and family and explain why it is wrong and inhumane to kill wild animals as they are gentle and kind in nature. Contacting our local government officials and expressing our desire to ban hunting is also important.

We can inform them that hunting has no place in the 21st century as the animals suffer grievously and that this indefensible activity severely disrupts ecosystems. Finally, we can set an example by following an animal-free diet, which is truly the mark of reverence for all life.

Many thanks again In Defense of Animals as well as Kenneth Williams and all others appearing in “What’s Wrong With Hunting” for sincerely seeking an end to the senseless slaughter of our innocent animal co-inhabitants.

For more details on In Defense of Animals, please visit www.IDAUSA.org
A DVD of Undercover TV episodes is available at the same website

Thank you for joining us for the Stop Animal Cruelty program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, following Noteworthy News. May we all love and care for animals of all species.