Arsenal go trophy hunting with guns: club’s owner launches bloodsports channel
“What’s the best hunting channel on the telly?” is a question most of us are asked. It might be the Outdoor Sportsman Group, a online bloodsports broadcaster owned by Stan Kroenke, a man with a profile lower than a sniper shitting in a foxhole. Kroenke’s name is familiar to football fans because he owns the biggest slice of shares in Arsenal FC. TV’s Ben Fogle, an “ambassador” for the World Wildlife Foundation, has noticed that and because he disapproves of hunting wants Arsenal fans to boycott the club.
Two things have possibly escaped Fogle’s view: Arsenal fans support a football club not Stan Kroenke Inc. The club is called The Gunners, nicknamed because the foundering members met – get this – in a munitions factory. They didn’t make stuff to shoot animals; the made guns to shoot people.
For those of you not au fait with Kroenke’s snuff TV for exotic breeds, the Times, which says Arsenal fans are “furious” over this, tells us:
My Online TV (MOTV) offers viewers the chance to see thousands of hunting shows, for a subscription of $9.99 (£7.60) a month, including one show that depicts a huntress shooting an antelope with a bow and arrow and men chasing bears in America with dogs…
In one episode a middle-aged man with a Smith & Wesson pistol shoots an adult lion beneath a tree. “It felt good, you know,” he says. “This is the most exciting hunt I have ever been on.”
Do we care that the armed pillock is middle aged and that the lion was adult? The average Londoner will find it odd that a man of any age would spend thousands of pounds travelling to Africa to off a big cat. But if it’s his idea of fun and freedom, and all the adults in this tableaux of guns and gore are consenting – no complaint from the lion nor his lawyers – who are we to judge? Football boots are still made from leather, the burgers for sale at Arsenal on match days are made from ‘meat’ and it’s unlikely any Arsenal season ticket holder will pay good money to watch animals being killed on Abattoir TV or whatever the show’s called and feel inspired to shot and mount fans of Millwall (nickname: The Lions), Leicester (The Foxes) or Tigers (Hull City).
Philippa King, chief operating officer of the League Against Cruel Sports, says Mr Kroenke had scored a “massive own goal… We’re living in a world now where most people can see how brutal and shameful trophy hunting is, yet the Arsenal boss is choosing to launch his sick TV channel in the UK.”
Trophy hunting is indeed shameful. Just look at how Arsenal celebrate winning the FA Cup when the really big prizes remain well out of reach. They shoot! They come that close…
Posted: 31st, July 2017 | In: Arsenal, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
