GAHC asks KGO to host Anthony Marr vs Ted Nugent debate

“We know where you will be on your tour at any time. We have months to track you down and ambush you. We have an arrow with your name written on the shaft." - Hunter's death threat against Anthony Marr.





To the Editor
KGO-AM Radio


Dear Editor:

I am writing to see if your radio station would be interested in hosting a live in-studio debate between Anthony Marr, founder and president of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC),



and Ted Nugent, icon of recreational hunting and trophy hunting



- assuming of course that Mr. Nugent would rise to the occasion.

Anthony Marr is within 2 weeks of departing from Vancouver on his 39-states-in-7-months Compassion for Animals Road Expedition #7 (CARE-7 – full itinerary in www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr), to be accompanied by GAHC-VP Anthony Damiano. He will be in northern California for the week of April 8 – April 15, and will make himself available at your convenience.



Anthony Marr is no stranger to debating hunters; in fact he used to debate them 100 at a time. Back in 1996, then a campaign director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, he conducted a 50-communities-in-60-days anti-hunting-referendum road tour throughout British Columbia, and debated large crowds of hunters over 40 times. In 1998, he was physically assaulted by a hunter, resulting in 3 facial bone fractures and a buckled eye socket. In 2010, he goes on the road again, this time as the “most-hated anti”, in the hunters' own opinion.



Marr is highly respected in the animal advocacy movement, has worked in three tiger reserves (Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Ranthambhore) and has been a key speaker at the Animal Rights National Conference since 2004, delivering over 10 different speeches year after year. He was also the host of the Animal Voices radio program on CFRO-FM in Vancouver.



The following newspaper excerpts is typical of the media coverage of “the highest profile animal advocacy campaign in Canada, 1996” (Gloobal and Mail, Canada):


The Prince George Citizen
by Gordon Hoekstra
July 4, 1996
[Fur flies at meeting to ban bear hunts]
It was barely civil and sometimes downright ugly. In the end, it took a representative of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee close to two hours to deliver a plea for help to ban bear hunting in BC. Anthony Marr was interrupted, shouted down, and generally abused by hunters in an audience of more than 100 that spilled out of the conference room at the Civic Centre Thursday evening... ¦Marr had barely begun...¦before he was attacked...


The Daily News, Kamloops, BC
by Michelle Young
July 9, 1996
[Activist pleads for bear-hunt ban]
With calm and respect, Anthony Marr faced rapid-fire questioning from hunters and threw back a plea for them to stop hunting bears...

Alberni Valley Times
[Bear hunters confront bare-faced petition to put them into permanent hibernation]
June 14, 1996
by Diane Morrison

Bears, whether Black, Brown, Grizzly or Polar, are not endangered species in North America. Anthony Marr wants to keep it that way.
The campaigner for Western Canada Wilderness Committee was in Port Alberni Thursday night with his effort to ban sport and trophy hunting of Grizzly and Black bears.
It was a very hard sell to the audience of about 70 dominated by hunters and hunting guides that packed into a into small, hot room at the Friendship Centre, made even hotter by the temper flaring up from wall to wall.
The hunters say they are the endangered species. They wanted the distinction between legal hunting and poaching to be clearly recognized. “Go ask the bears, to see if they can,” said Marr. He also said that some hunters and guides make this impossible, because they are themselves poachers.
Marr believes that, with both legal hunting, poaching and conservation officer kills, about 8% of the Grizzly bear population and more than 10% of the Black bear population are being killed each year. He said the province’s Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy clearly states that the species can sustain no more than a 4% annual mortality before going into decline, and even this, according to Marr, is too high.
Members of the audience disputed Marr’s numbers saying that, on Vancouver Island at least, the Black bear population has been increasing by 15% for the last 10 years. Marr countered that the Black bear populations on southern Vancouver Island, and some in Mid-Island, have been decimated in various locales, citing the Cowichan Lake area as an example, and challenged the hunters to produce written documentation to support their claim, which they did not.
A number of people asked why Marr’s main thrust was to shut down legal hunting when the problem is poaching. Marr replied that both in combination is the problem, and that he has another sub-campaign targeting poachers and traffickers of bear parts. A Chinese Canadian, Marr has taken on both Canadian hunters and the Chinese demand for the body parts of these animals.
After about an hour of cross firing, WCWC campaign assistant Erica Denison finally stood up and said that until poaching can be brought under control, they want to buy time for the bears to recover. One of the hunters pointed at her and said, “Young lady, you are not old enough to teach us anything. Sit down!” Marr pointed at a middle-aged woman in the audience who had been quite outspoken in favour of hunting, saying, “I’ve been listening to this young lady for the last hour. Erica, please continue.”
Marr needs to get hunters on his side, the woman said, not slam them, because hunters also want to stop poaching.
Some audience members said it is organizations such as WCWC, advertising the fact that bear parts are worth so much on the black market, that is increasing poaching. Marr scoffed at this as an “ostrich attitude”.
They objected to being told that they can’t legally hunt bears, but bears that get into garbage and smash bee hives can be killed for being a nuisance. Marr said, “The bears you kill are not nuisance bears, and that killing nuisance bears is not your job.”

When shown a picture of a bear shut in a small cage with a tube leading out from its gall bladder to extract bile, one man said that countries that treat animals like that are not democratic and so they have no conscience. Marr countered that lots of capitalists have no conscience either.
Another man was convinced that if WCWC is successful in shutting down bear hunting, it will try to shut down all hunting. Marr said, “If another hunted species becomes threatened or endangered, I would champion its cause as well.”
Back to poaching, Marr said that when an animal such as the tiger and the rhino is declared endangered, the demand and price, and so the poaching, skyrocket, hastening its slide into oblivion. “It is a very vicious cycle, and the purpose of this campaign is to try to keep our own bears out of it.” . . .

2006 [Big Trees, Not Big Stumps]
(book by Paul George, WCWC)
"... Anthony Marr cannot be intimidated... His blunt, unflappable style infuriated the opposition..."


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.YouTube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org
www.AnimalVoices.org
604-222-1169 up to March 31
216-386-7362 as of April 1