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Eliza Dushku

Eliza Dushku upsets Animal Lovers with Hunting Boasts

Friday 8 August 2008, by Webmaster

Former Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Eliza Dushku has upset animal rights activists in America after revealing she hunts elk and deer.

The actress proudly showed off her bow and arrow skills on late-night chat show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday and boasted about killing a deer in Oklahoma last Christmas.

She also revealed she was hunting for elk in Colorado when she landed her role in upcoming TV series Dollhouse.

Realising the studio audience had turned on her over her Bambi-killing antics, Dushku joked, "My mother called me herself and said, ’You’re a liberal from New England, what the ’f’ are you doing in Oklahoma shooting things."

And when Kimmel took the actress to task for her hunting boasts, she defended her actions by stating, "When you’re in a relationship with somebody you have to, like, experience things that they do."

She added, "A lot of people eat meat... and I eat what I kill."

Dushku’s remarks have angered People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) activists, who insist the actress should put down her bow and stop hunting.

A spokeswoman for the organisation says, "Slaying bloodthirsty vampires on Buffy is brave, but slaying innocent animals where they live and raise their families is cowardly and cruel.

"Eliza is sorely out of step with the rest of the country; 95 per cent of Americans oppose hunting."


6 Forum messages

  • Eliza Dushku upsets Animal Lovers with Hunting Boasts

    9 August 2008 00:49

    The headline is not correct. PETA does not represent "animal lovers". I love animals. Our pets have our love and affection. PETA is a radical pressure group that thinks that people like ME (who keep and care for our furry companions and friends) have a "selfish desire to possess animals" which "causes immeasurable suffering" (that’s off their own web site). Please don’t confuse them with me.

    If you get out of the isolation of big cities and into the the real world with real mountains and real wildlife, hunting is normal. The recovery of wildlife populations is promoted and funded by hunters. They’re the ones bringing back the wildlife, not PETA. PETA just wants your money along with political pull. (And, in the wild animals hunt animals, and last I checked evolution suggests that humans are animals.)

    I’m glad to see an actress that’s not bow-ing (pun intended) to pressure groups. Articles like these make me want to go down to the sportsman’s shop and have them send a bouquet of arrows to Ms. Dushku.

  • Eliza Dushku upsets Animal Lovers with Hunting Boasts

    9 August 2008 03:44, by DurangoKid

    Give me a break! Innocent? Isn’t that a human judgement? Humans evolved for hundreds of thousands of years eating meat either as carrion or game. It’s who we are. It’s our heritage as omnivores. Is there anything more back to nature than getting up close and personal with what you eat? And Eliza eats what she bags. Good for her.

    By the way, herds of elk and deer need to be managed for their own good as a species. Like it or not humans need to take up the slack for the lack of predators. And bullets kill a lot faster than wolves. PETA does have the right to make their opinion heard. We also have the right to ignore it.

  • Eliza Dushku upsets Animal Lovers with Hunting Boasts

    9 August 2008 03:50, by DurangoKid
    And furthermore, Bambi is an urban myth, a cartoon. It’s not biology or ecology. It’s a movie that flatters its audience in order to sell tickets. It also serves to alienate humans from the wild world and our wild selves.

  • Eliza Dushku upsets Animal Lovers with Hunting Boasts

    11 August 2008 22:59, by Talia
    There’s a difference between people who hunt just to get ’trophies’ out of it, and people who always eat what they kill. Um, if you’re not a vegetarian, you might as well be a hunter, because animals are killed to feed YOU. I saw Eliza at Comic-Con, and she made it explicit that she always eats what she kills. It’s not just for sport. These people sound so vehement in their proclamations it’s almost like anyone who isn’t a vegan is going to hell. Yes, it may seem sad, deer, elk dying. BUT...If they saw Eliza eating venison in a restaurant they wouldn’t go up to her and yell at her about her cruelty towards animals. So, really, what’s the difference? And actually, if you take into consideration how horribly some animals are slaughtered for food that makes it into restaurants, it’s probably a whole lot healthier AND more ethical to shoot it yourself. Lay off!

  • Eliza Dushku upsets Animal Lovers with Hunting Boasts

    4 March 2009 10:17

    She eats what she kills? How long do you people who believe that think it would take to eat a whole elk?

    I’m here to tell you it would take a long time.