A Government-sponsored advertisement depicting rabbits and shooting screening on National TV has provoked a flood of criticism on facebook.
Some of the comments were as follows:-
“More left wing tree hugging crap, trying to demonise hunting and shooting, they are legitimate sports in NZ”
“you chose to scapegoat hunters”
“Whats wrong with hunting videos? You do realize that hunting has been a human activity for the past oh, 2 million years? Yet at the same time mainstream TV has dating shows revolving around wearing very little?”
“This is disgraceful, why are you demonizing hunting? Displaying an illegal act (discharging a firearm towards a person, in a built up area), and saying “it’s for the safety of the children” is ridiculous. You’re attempting to put hunting in the same realm as actual harmful content such as pornography.”
Sporting Shooters Association of New Zealand has asked firearm owners to “share on your own social media and demand that the advertisement is taken down.”
The advertisement can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQNBZff0330&list=PL63ZI-398W-P3ZeAuTmB5T9RxPZtGh69i&index=4