Animal rights groups protest fundraiser at Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club

Prior Lake American

The Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club had a few uninvited guests for its annual Spring Wings Fundraiser on Wednesday — animal rights protesters.

A group of about seven people from the animal rights groups SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness, or SHARK, and the Animal Rights Coalition stood on the highway on Wednesday morning outside of the club to protest what they called “canned hunting.”

People generally hear of the term canned hunt in regards to lions that are raised on farms and kept in enclosed areas to be shot as trophies. Volunteers said the pigeon and quail shoots held at the club are similar in that the birds are kept in boxes and hunters shoot at them once they are released.

Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club owner Bill Urseth said he doesn’t know what the term means.

“I’ve been in the hunting business for 34 years, and I don’t know what a canned hunt is,” Urseth said.

The type of hunting is what makes it protest worthy, SHARK protester Janet Enoch said.

“We recognize the difference between sustenance hunting ... as opposed to canned hunts,” Enoch said. “We don’t advocate hunting, because we’re an animal protection organization, but we recognize the difference.”

The Spring Wings Fundraiser features a pigeon and quail shoot as well as cocktails, dinner and an auction to raise money for the Youth Hunting Club and Youth Hunt Camps held at the club over the summer. The fundraiser brings in about $10,000 to $12,000 so kids can attend the camps for free, Urseth said.

“I have no idea why they would protest that,” Urseth said. “We raise the money at an event like this so the kids can attend for free. That’s why I’m so confused about why they’re protesting a fundraiser to raise money to send kids to a summer camp for free, but that’s what they are evidently doing.”

St. Paul resident Greg Howard, who volunteers with the Animal Rights Coalition, said the group is trying to get rid of practices that harm animals in any way.

“For one thing, there’s no reason to hunt in this area at all,” Howard said. “There’s no reason to eat an animal when there’s plenty of other sustenance to be had. So, I don’t support hunting at all and especially the way they’re doing it.”

The camps allow children to experience and appreciate the outdoors, Urseth said.

“It’s so they can develop skills in the outdoors, so they can appreciate the outdoors, so they can have fun, so their lives in the summer time are enriched with physical activity,” Urseth said. “That’s the reason we’ve been running these summer camp programs since 1986.”

The goal for SHARK, which is headquartered in Illinois, is to shut down this and every bird hunt across the country, protester Bryan Monell said.

“We want to shut this down,” Monell said. “We don’t think this has any place in civilized society. Most hunters would be opposed to this. This is not sport, this is wanton slaughter.”

SHARK Founder Steve Hindi said he was a hunter for 30 years and that hunters should be opposed to the shoots as well.

“I understand ethical hunting,” Hindi said. “This is not hunting. It’s cruelty. We as a species ought to be beyond this.”

The club is not going to stop the fundraiser, Urseth said.

“Six people standing outside on the highway is going to affect a program that affects 65 kids a year to go to summer camps? No, we’re not going to stop the program for six protesters led by someone from out-of-state,” Urseth said.