News Release

Oct. 31, 2000 Contact: Stuart Chaifetz 732-899-4202

On Saturday morning, the New Jersey Fish and Game Council and the NJ Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife will allow children as young as 10 years old, armed with shotguns, to shoot and kill animals.

"It is an outrage that a state agency is teaching children to kill," States Stuart Chaifetz, Green Party Congressional Candidate in NJ's 4th District. "I attended a previous youth pheasant hunt, and saw young boys bear shotguns nearly as tall as they were. I saw how they smiled and laughed as the animals they had just killed were displayed, and their blood dripped to the ground. The taking of pleasure from the killing of living beings is not a lesson we should be teaching children. Therefore I stand against the Division, the Council, and this disgraceful hunt."

The animals that the children will kill come from Fish and Games' breeding farm, where every year more than 50,000 pheasants are bred for the sole purpose of being killed for "recreation". These animals are brought to Wildlife Management Areas is small wood boxes and then spun around, so as to disorientate them, and make them easier to kill.

Fish and Game is in the business of hunting, and they profit from the sale of hunting licenses. With the number of hunters declining, they are desperate for children to fill these dwindling ranks. In this mad race for money, animals have not been their only victims: children have been shot, maimed and even killed. The following data comes from Fish and Games' hunting accident reports. Note that all children involved passed Fish and Games 'hunter safety course'.

· Between 1990 and 1997 there were a total of 19 'accidents' in which youths between the ages of
10 and 19 were either shot, or shot another person.

· In 1995, 3 children between the ages of 10 and 13 were involved in shooting incidents.

· In April 1997, a 14 year old boy shot himself in the face while hunting. According to a news
report, the blast "removed a substantial amount of the youth's jaw."

· On December 8, 1998, a 17 year old boy who was hunting was shot and killed by another hunter.

"If a black bear had so much as scratched a 17 year old boy, Fish and Game would be demanding an immediate bear hunt," states Chaifetz. "But when a hunter kills a 17 year old boy, not only do they not cease putting children at risk, but they continue the programs that that will inevitably lead to more mutilations and death."

Our state was correct when it banned the ownership of guns to anyone under 18, but now it must face the terrible exemption to this law. If you are as young as ten years old you can have a gun...but only if you kill an animal with it.