PETA Responds To Kristy Lee Cook’s New Hunting Reality Show

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by Daelyn Fortney August 5, 2010
Categories: Animals, Music
Tags: , , , .

As we reported earlier this week, Kristy Lee Cook, who placed 7th on American Idol in 2008, is hosting a new hunting show on the Versus channel called “Goin’ Country.” The show follows the country singer as she tries to score a record deal while participating in hunts across the United States.

Obviously the decision to participate in such a “sport” and document it with a show has landed the 26-year-old in hot water with animal rights organization PETA.

Jennifer O’Connor of PETA writes, “American Idol season seven runner-up Kristy Lee Cook is doing anything she can to get her “15 Minutes of Shame.” In her new television show on Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network), Kristy is traveling around the country shooting animals. It sounds like she must have had those tired old defenses of hunting hammered into her as a kid, because she isn’t embarrassed to float the incredibly old saw that hunters somehow help animals … by killing them while they’re in the woods with their families minding their own business.”

O’Connor then points out that Cook should follow in the footsteps of other compassionate Idol notables like vegetarians Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler along with Simon Cowell who condemns fur and promotes spaying and neutering.

  • georgina0912

    Maybe this is the best she will ever do, who knows. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and obviously she doesn’t feel bad about killing animals either.
    Maybe she is better at that than she is at singing.

  • Michael Raymer

    Legal, regulated hunting is where the Green movement really needs to wake up and do their homework. If PETA got their wish and hunting was completely abolished, it would cause an ecological disaster within 3 – 5 years, depending on region. Overpopulation, disease, defoliation of food sources would all occur and cause untold suffering across the entire animal kingdom. Without the millions and millions of dollars collected every year in license fees and products, habitat loss would become epidemic. Sometimes the gentle way is, in fact, the wrong way.

    • Aberdeen Vegan

      hmmmm, yes, the environment was a disaster until humans turned up and started to hunt animals!

      How can people be so deluded?

      • Michael Raymer

        Thanx for trying to put words in my mouth, but next time you might want to try harder. The environment does fine until HABITAT LOSS occurs. Buildings, roads, neighborhoods, farms(what, farms? But we vegans LOVE farms), fences and towns are what adversley affects the population of the animal kingdom. Once they lose these territories, where are they supposed to go? They have nowhere TO go. As such, their population needs to be kept at sustainable levels or they will eat themselves to death. And the habitat that the animals still have needs to be preserved for what is left. What have YOU done to further this goal? Hunters spend the money that keeps vast tracts of sustainable wilderness open, while vegans and PETA members sit around the water-pipe doing nothing but talking and wringing their hands. You know, kinda like what you’re doing now.

  • http://www.thedisenchantedjourno.com Disenchanted Journo

    More idiocy from PETA. Keep the meat, throw out the annoying vegetarians – http://disenchantedjourno.blogspot.com/2010/08/good-life-keep-meat-throw-out-annoying.html

  • CT79

    I like how ecorazzi only posts Peta’s statement and leave out what Cook said (and what is more important than any BS Peta spews)….let me fill you in (this was taken off another news site BTW):

    “Given that hunters have done more for American wildlife conservation than any other group in history, I make no apology for being one,” Cook said. “Indeed, I join the ranks of millions of American hunters who celebrate our outdoor heritage and who conserve millions of acres of wild lands. These same people support more than 600,000 jobs across the country and provide a critical voice to encourage more investment in American conservation.”

    Cook is also an advocate of eating organically, and argues that harvesting your own meat is about as organic as you can get.

    “I’m a big time organic person, and the meat we get from shooting something is as organic as it comes. If I don’t take the meat home to my family then we give it to orphanages or homeless shelters,” she said. The meat is going somewhere and it is great because I get to feed all these people. Whether you like hunting or not, I know I get to help people eat.”

    If you are going to run a story you need to have both sides of it.

  • Ryan H. Alworth

    http://www.ecorazzi.com – did not even have the intellectual integrity to publish Kristy Lee Cook’s response. The fact that they will publish PETA’s spoke person, but will not publish Ms. Cook’s response reveals an unwillingness to share the whole story. Being afraid of the truth, is provides a scary and sad state for any organization that publishes news. This type of agenda driven reporting is part of the problem with the 4th estate.
    Ms. Cook as responded with the following, “Given that hunters have done more for American wildlife conservation than any other group in history, I make no apology for being one. Indeed, I join the ranks of millions of American hunters who celebrate our outdoor heritage and who conserve millions of acres of wild lands. These same people support more than 600,000 jobs across the country and provide a critical voice to encourage more investment in American conservation.”

    It is important for everyone to understand that hunting is a noble and proud pursuit; and it remains a vital part of our American heritage. It is interesting that while millions of Americans are interested in conservation and wildlife, but those who oppose hunting may not be aware that hunters are the largest contributors to conservation, paying for programs that benefit all Americans and wildlife. It is important to note that an overabundance of any one species can cause a shortage of food and an increase in the spread of diseases. Hunters help to regulate and maintain wildlife while not affecting future populations.

    Hypocrisy is the mother of all credibility problems, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has it in spades. While loudly complaining about the “unethical” treatment of animals by restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans, the group has its own dirty little secret. Not counting the pets PETA spayed and neutered, the group put to death over 90 percent of the animals it took in during the last five years. And its angel-of-death pattern shows no sign of changing.

    PETA reports almost $30 million each year in income, much of it raised from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals. Instead, the group spends huge sums on programs equating people who eat chicken with Nazis, scaring young children away from drinking milk, recruiting children into the radical animal-rights lifestyle, and intimidating businessmen and their families in their own neighborhoods. PETA has also spent tens of thousands of dollars defending arsonists and other violent extremists. The fact that anyone still gives this group a stage to promote their agenda is a travesty.

    Sportsmen and women have historically funded the majority of the conservation effort. Here, once again, the hunter enters the picture because, unlike other state governmental agencies, the 50 fish and game departments receive little support from taxes paid by the general public. Instead, the majority of their operating funds come from hunters and anglers. Sporting enthusiasts are paying, as they have for many years, nearly all the bills for practical wildlife conservation — and paying them not just for their own benefit, but for that of all Americans.

    So I say to PETA, “SHUT – UP”! We have our own acronym for PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) and we believe that there is plenty of room for all of god’s little creatures, right next to my mashed potatoes.

  • ash

    Wow that’s like, NOT HOT.

  • Danny

    Jennifer O’Conner doesn’t know crap. Her parents don’t hunt. Both did serve this country. So get your our foot out of your mouth PETA. Do some research before you blab off, makes you look more intelligent. Speaking of no research, you mention animals are meant to live in peace till they die. You need to talk to the one who eat their young. And the thousands of species that kill to eat as well.

    You sit around and eat vegetables, don’t they store oxygen. And you are eating up all the plants. Just a minute let me catch my breath. Maybe plants were put here to live in peace until they die. You murderers.

    Go Kristy, shoot me a nice elk and send me some elk burger. Mmmmmmmmm, I will eat it with my eggplant.

  • PotatoHead

    You people rank on someone because they hunt. Then don’t stop, and disrespect their talents as well. Kristy was a great singer. The road to make the top 7 is hard work, and takes allot of talent. You may think about getting off your ever widening butts and get a career so you don’t have to trash others. She has accomplished record deals, TV shows, Idol Tour, and obviously a decent hunter. (Yes this is also a skill). Ye she has personality, spunk, and you don’t read about her wrecking her car while intoxicated, or in drug rehab. She seems happy all the time, and looks great. Maybe someone can take a few lessons instead of putting her down. I loved the first show. It really was one of the best hunting series I have seen in some time. She has an awesome voice. I wish her all the luck. Ignore those who try to keep you down. They need to get out and enjoy life a little more.

    PETA sucks. I would rather donate my hard earned money to something like research to cure the illness of of PETA members.

  • mparis

    Hunters claim that they pay for “conservation” by buying hunting licenses, duck stamps, etc. But the relatively small amount each hunter pays does not cover the cost of hunting programs or game warden salaries. The public lands many hunters use are supported by taxpayers. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs, which benefit hunters, get most of their funds from general tax revenues, not hunting fees. Funds benefiting “non-game” species are scarce. Hunters kill more animals than recorded tallies indicate. It is estimated that, for every animal a hunter kills and recovers, at least two wounded but un-recovered animals die slowly and painfully of blood loss, infection, or starvation. Those who don’t die often suffer from disabling injuries. Because of carelessness or the effects of alcohol, scores of horses, cows, dogs, cats, hikers, and others are wounded or killed each year by hunters. In 1988, 177 people were killed and 1,719 injured by hunters while walking through the woods or on their own property.

  • mparis

    Hunters and hunting organizations also promote the idea that hunting is necessary for “wildlife management” and “conservation.” “Wildlife management” and “conservation” are euphemisms used to describe programs that ensure that there are always enough animals for hunters to hunt. Because they make their money primarily from the sale of hunting licenses, the major function of wildlife agencies is not to protect individual animals or biological diversity, but to propagate “game” species for hunters to shoot.

  • mparis

    When hunters talk about shooting overpopulated animals, they are usually referring to white-tailed deer, representing only 3 percent of all the animals killed by hunters. Sport hunters shoot millions of mourning doves, squirrels, rabbits, and waterfowl, and thousands of predators, none of whom any wildlife biologist would claim are overpopulated or need to be hunted. Even with deer, hunters do not search for starving animals. They either shoot animals at random, or they seek out the strongest and healthiest animals in order to bring home the biggest trophies or largest antlers. Hunters and wildlife agencies are not concerned about reducing deer herds, but rather with increasing the number of targets for hunters and the number of potential hunting license dollars. Thus, they use deer overpopulation as a smokescreen to justify their sport. The New Jersey Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife states that “the deer resource has been managed primarily for the purpose of sport hunting,”

  • snowisfun

    While I’m a vegetarian, no problem with people hunting animals for food provided that it’s done humanely. Have no interest to watch Kristy Lee Cook’s reality show. If she is hunting deer & pheasant for food then that’s 1 thing, as long as the hunted animal is swiftly killed. On the other hand, if she is hunting for trophy, then that’s wrong & I am against trophy hunting. Also as I’m new to this site, I just don’t think it’s best to give seriousness to what celebrities think politically.

    Yes, it’s better if we were all vegetarians. But given that most people eat meat, let’s make sure that the animal being hunted is humanely killed. In nature, animals such as pythons & boas cruelly kill their preys. Personally, I would rather have a hunter kill a rabbit quickly with a high powered rifle & then eat the rabbit or hare than have a python strangle it. They must get rid of steel jaw traps because those are cruel.

    I also happen to support hunting pythons & monitor lizards in the Florida Everglades to protect endangered species. No, these animals should never have been kept as pets, but since pet owners have released them into the Everglades after they got too big, they must be hunted until the populations fall to manageable levels & the remainder should be put in zoos or returned to their native habitats.

    The other situation where I don’t have a problem with hunting is hunting deer to feed zoo animals such as lions, tigers, wolves, etc. Now yes, it’s better for animals to be in the wild. But some animals just can’t live in the wild & zoos are the place to keep endangered species. Since lions eat deer, antelope, zebras, etc. humanely hunt the deer, make sure that the deer doesn’t have T.B. & then give it to the zoos to feed the lions.

    Again, unsure about why Kristy Lee Cook is hunting. The # of hunters have gone down & though hunteresses (women who hunt) have gone up, overall, fewer people hunt. But again, if it’s hunting some animals such as deer & pheasant for food, protecting endangered species & to feed zoo animals, those are 3 situations where I support hunting, provided that the hunted animal is quickly & humanely killed.

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