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This is the form letter I got back when I e-mailed them:
Thank you for contacting PETA regarding our news release reporting the results of a study linking hunting with abnormally small male reproductive organs. We appreciate the opportunity to explain why we sent this release.
PETA's purpose is to stop animal suffering, and we use all available opportunities to reach millions of people with powerful messages. We have found that people do pay more attention to our more provocative actions, and we consider the public's attention to be extremely important. Unlike our opposition, which is mostly composed of wealthy organizations and corporations, PETA must rely on getting free "advertising" through media coverage. We often do outrageous things to get the word out about animal abuse, because sadly, media organizations usually do not consider the facts alone "interesting" enough to cover.
As you may have discerned from the date of the release-April 1-it was intended to be our annual April Fool's Day joke. While this item is meant to be lighthearted, the situation for animals hunted and killed in the name of "sport" is very serious.
PETA opposes hunting because of the unnecessary suffering that it causes animals. The stress that hunted animals suffer-the inescapable noise, fear, and commotion-severely compromises their normal eating habits, making it hard for them to store the fat and energy that they need to survive the winter. Hunting also disrupts migration and hibernation patterns. For animals like wolves, who mate for life and live in close-knit family units, hunting can devastate entire communities.
Hunters often argue that they are "managing" wildlife, saving animals from death by starvation and disease. While starvation and disease are unfortunate, they are also nature's way of ensuring that strong animals survive, thus increasing their species' chances of survival. Natural predators help keep prey species strong by killing only sick and weak individuals. Hunters, on the other hand, kill whichever animals they come across or, in many cases, whichever animals they think would look best mounted above the fireplace-often large, healthy animals who are needed to keep populations strong.
Moreover, hunting creates conditions that favor accelerated reproduction: The abrupt population decline that it causes leads to less competition for food among survivors, and ultimately to a higher birth rate, leading back to the very problems that hunters claim to solve. If our real concern is to keep animals from starving, then we should take steps to reduce animals' fertility, an approach that would help us preserve wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, "game" species, and other natural predators who are currently "managed" to ensure a steady flow of victims for hunters to kill.
We have so many better ways to entertain ourselves that it's natural to wonder whether those who choose to spend their time killing other beings might not be compensating for something they're lacking. For more information about the devastation of hunting, please see our factsheet at http://www.PETA.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=53. To learn how you can help animals targeted by hunters, please contact the Fund for Animals (http://www.FundForAnimals.org).
We hope this information is helpful. Thanks again for writing.
