Excerpt from 'Voice of the Outdoors' column, January 23rd, 2009 in Whitehorse Daily Star:

'BC animal rights group wants to cancel the Yukon Quest'

I have known for some months now that this BC animal rights group is spending money in written promotions to close down the Yukon Quest sled dog race.

These animal rights groups have a lot of money to spend on propaganda, but I fail to find one conservation project here in the Yukon that would ensure habitat improvement for wildlife.

Let's really examine the working of this group. Many of these grouops are part and parcel of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and follow their ways and means of attacking such things as the Quest, including hunting and fishing.

A few weeks ago, I wrote of a release from the FBI showing that an animal rights group in the U.S. has been raiding mink ranches in the States and now in BC, smashing ranch pens and releasing thousands of mink in the wild that would be devastating to ground nesting birds as well as small animals. Its members also burned down a large warehouse and factory that stocked feed for the mink ranches.

This, according to the FBI, was a million-dollar fire. This particular group is on the wanted list of the FBI, which includes a sizable reward for its members capture. Meanwhile, PETA's most recent marketing campaign is to now call fish "sea kittens"; Some may laugh, but it is no joke.

Some adults are actually telling small, innocent children that fish are "sea kittens".

When the Canwest News Service interviewed Ashley Byrne, PETA's campaign co-ordinator, she commented, "A lot of people don't realize that fish are capable of feeling pain; that they developed relationships with each other and even show affection by gently rubbing against each other."

Admittedly, I have seen a northern pike ease up beside a small whitefish - only the pike ATE the whitefish. It is not a laughing matter, as the promotion of "Bambi", the cute little deer, has done more harm to wild deer and wildlife that any possible good. BAMBI DOES NOT EXIST.

It is a figment of the imagination and a make-believe fallacy by the misinformed who are attempting to pass it on to young, innocent children, plain and simple. For an adult to pass on lies to small children is the most harmful thing they could do to the welfare and future of wildlife in Canada or the world.

If any fish, hunting or outdoors group does not think this group has power, inroads into the politics and the money to accomplish its means and ends, they are badly misinformed, as well as being misled.

I have a list of their accomplishments. If you are a business owner in the Yukon and reading this, I would encourage you to call the Yukon Quest office in in Whitehorse at (867)668-4711 and offer your sponsorship.

Show this BC anti-Quest group that this is THE YUKON, not BC.

Remember, the anti-Yukon Quest of BC, as well as some undisclosed sources in the Yukon, will be going to any means to halt this tradition of the north.

Let's do our part to help the Quest.

Murray J. Martin

email: murraywritesforu@northwestel.net

(Note: the Whitehorse Daily Star is an official 'media sponsor' of the Yukon Quest.)