ARSENAL CHIEF’S SICK TV SHAME
Kroenke launches big-game hunting channel in UK
A SICK trophy-hunting channel has been launched in the UK by Arsenal’s owner.
Stan Kroenke’s My Outdoor TV charges £7.60 a month to view the slaughter of lions, elephants and other wildlife. Arsenal fan Jeremy Corbyn said: “I’m appalled.”
A TV presenter is shown shooting an antelope with a bow and arrow – and a voice gloats: “Good hit. Definitely some liver and some lungs hit.”
The clip, from My Outdoor TV channel show Dark Continent Quest is one of many that will disgust UK TV fans, more used to watching David Attenborough wax lyrical about natural wonders.
But that’s the kind of “slay per view” content being lined up by Arsenal boss Stan Kroenke for £7.60 a month.
The channel, launched in the UK at the weekend, also includes Miss Wildgame, starring Liberte Austin, in which women compete in crossbow hunts, and Tracks Across Africa, about pro hunters blasting elephants, lions and buffalo.
Kroenke was seen congratulating Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on their FA Cup Final win at Wembley last season.
But the kind of trophy hunting on his animal slaughter channel has upset high-profile Arsenal fans including TV journalist Robert Peston and Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan, as well as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Morgan tweeted: “Hopefully, it will hasten his departure from our club. Aside from the irony of Kroenke engaging in “trophyhunting”, this absolutely disgusts me.”
Mr Corbyn added: “As an Arsenal fan I’m disgusted Stan Kroenke is involved in such a brutal, unethical and unnecessary activity. “This is not sport. Kroenke should stick to football if he wants to be involved in sport. “In my mind ‘blood sport’ is a contradiction and there should be no place on TV or anywhere else for it.” In SCI Expedition Safari, hunter Mike Rogers is filmed shooting a “rogue lion” in Tanzania. He says: “It felt good and I knew it felt good and everyone is celebrating it and it felt good.”
In another show, the host shoots an endangered African elephant through the branches of a tree.
The commentator says: “There is no other feeling in the world quite like walking up on your bull elephant.”
My Outdoor TV is part of Kroenke’s US-based Kroenke Sports Entertainment group. Spokesman Simon Barr said: “MOTV will present ethical, fair chase hunting and as long as it’s legal it will be on there. I’m sure people won’t like all the content, but it won’t be censored.
“On every film there’s an explanation of what hunting does for the local community.”
But Philippa King, of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This is a
massive own goal for Stan Kroenke. We live in a world 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.”
She added: “Most people won’t agree trophy hunting is in any way ethical, and studies have debunked claims that most blood money goes towards conservation.
“I’m not sure in what way an idiot with a gun against an elephant is a fair chase.
“Mr Kroenke could do the world a great favour by stopping pedalling this kind of sickening TV and turning his focus on helping the animals he apparently likes to see killed.”
Launched at the Game Fair in Hertfordshire, the channel is now available online and via an app to a UK audience.
Kevin Pietersen, who is quitting English cricket for conservation work, said: “I find it sickening that anyone could want to endanger these animals whatsoever, but for someone to turn it into a TV show for entertainment absolutely boils my blood.”
“Enough is enough. These stunning animals are being slaughtered to the point of extinction and for anyone to celebrate it is absolutely repugnant.
“I’ve had so many messages from Arsenal fans telling me they hate him as much as anyone, if that’s the case, he has to be driven out. I wouldn’t want this person representing something I love. These animals don’t have a voice, but we do. If we don’t do anything, no one will.”
TV presenter Ben Fogle said: “I’m horrified that a man of financial stature, the majority shareholder in Arsenal and a man of influence, is apparently advocating and encouraging the killing of animals for sport.”
A PETA spokesman added: “Unlike footballers, who spend years mastering their sport, there’s no skill required to kill an animal: it involves only the movement of a finger.
“Except for those dead in heart and head, people understand lions, elephants, deer, are feeling individuals, not simply bodies waiting for their heads to be shot off and displayed on a wall.
“Stan Kroenke’s attempt to profit from crude bloodlust will no doubt disgust Arsenal fans and players.”
I’ve had so many messages from fans saying they hate him KEVIN PIETERSEN ON ARSENAL’S STAN KROENKE