April 6, 2020
DEAR FRIENDS,
Late last week, SHARK Investigator Stu Chaifetz discovered that a canned hunting club in New Jersey was going to hold a massive shoot where 1,000 hand-raised ducks were going to be released and slaughtered for fun, followed by a second shoot where 1,250 ducks and pheasants would suffer the same tragic fate. New Jersey, like many other states, are on lockdown, so Stu believed this planned shoot violated NJ Governor Phil Murphy’s Executive Order shutting down all non-essential businesses and mandating people to stay at home.
We gathered evidence about the shoot, including recording a phone call we had with the club, where the person we spoke to made a number of false statements about the Executive Order. To summarize that call, the club, called M&M Hunting and Sporting Clays, claimed they had permission from the state of NJ to hold canned hunts. This was a lie.
Armed with that phone call, and other evidence of the upcoming shoot, we contacted a number of high ranking officials within Governor Murphy’s staff and asked that they take action. To their great credit, they did, and within two days we had confirmation that they had told the club their shoots violated the executive order and they were shut down!
We sincerely thank Governor Murphy’s office for taking such quick and decisive action!
In addition to shutting down the shoots in NJ, SHARK has successfully shut down two planned canned hunts in the state of Michigan, including a tower shoot, where pheasants were to be thrown into the air and shot for fun.
These two shoots were planned for Saturday and Sunday, so our lightning fast actions saved lives that were about to be lost. This adds to our previous victory of shutting down pigeon shoots held at the Philadelphia Gun Club when we alerted the authorities in Pennsylvania that they might be holding more shoots which would violate that state’s lockdown order.
While the Coronavirus has kept many people from working, SHARK’s team is not only still on the job, but we are working hard on innovative ways to save lives, such as our new, unprecedented and highly successfully campaign to shut down hunts in states that are in lockdown.
This effort is going to be our top priority for the next few weeks while these orders are in effect. If you live in a state that is locked down, and know of any clubs that are open and holding shoots or hunts, please send that information to us. We will work to get them closed.
If you like the fact that SHARK, even under lockdown conditions, is saving more lives than ever, then please support us with a donation. We are especially going to need these resources once we are able to fully travel once again. We need your help now more than ever so we can stop cruelty and save lives.
SHARK is in desperate needs of funds. If you have money to spare, please click the banner below to support our efforts to save lives!
