Animal rights group calls for hunting, shooting titles to be displayed on porn shelf

I know that it’s a long way from Pennsylvania to Great Britain – 3,917 miles from Pittsburgh to London to be precise – but this brief story from a newspaper in England caught my eye recently. Almost hate to mention it for fear of giving an idea to the wackos here.

Under the headline, “Shooting Times and The Field to be classed alongside porn,” the story reported that country life magazines, including Shooting Times and The Field, are facing calls to be relegated to the top shelf, a spot traditionally reserved in Europe for porn magazines, by Britain’s largest animal rights charity.

In their “Gunning for Children: How the Gun Lobby Recruits Young Blood” article, Animal Aid claims that titles depicting country sports amount to “shooting porn,” which could have a “corrosive” effect on children who glimpsed it.

Such titles, the group claims, have depicted young children standing over dead game in a manner that “glorifies” hunting.

“Children who kill animals for sport in urban areas are considered dysfunctional and a social menace,” said Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler. “Yet Britain has a gun lobby, composed of well-connected groups, that devotes considerable resources towards encouraging children to take up guns at a young age. Their actions are damaging not just to wildlife but also to the emotional development of young people."

Of course David Taylor of the Countryside Alliance disagreed. “Shooting is a perfectly legitimate interest and hobby,” he said. “You can't just ban something because you don't like it. Lots of people don't like cars but they don't ban magazines about motor sports."

I’m guessing the wave of Families Afield legislation that has swept across the United States has not yet reached the beaches of England. Just as well — perhaps the Brits are not ready for mentored youth hunting …