ESPN Hunting

March 8, 2008
The Florida Marlins
Dolphins Stadium
2267 N.W. 199th Avenue
Miami, Fl. 33056
Owner: Jeffrey Loria
General Manager: Michael Hill
Dear Messieurs Loria and Hill:

The members of the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition were aghast when we heard about the interview of your pitcher, Logan Kensing with Palm Beach Post reporter Joe Capozzi on February 21, 2008. In this interview Mr. Kensing expressed views that we find very troubling, especially coming from one who is viewed as a role model by much of our youth.

In the article, Mr. Kensing was asked "What's the most interesting thing you did this off-season." Rather than describing helping others, using his fame to support worthy causes, meeting fans, engaging in other sports, spending time with his family, or reading a good book, he responded that the most interesting thing he did was that he "shot pigs from a helicopter". He went on to say that "The pilot's pretty good. He gets right next to them." Just to demonstrate that his ethical shortcomings are not confined only to taking pleasure in slaughtering innocent animals at close range, and extend to shallow materialism, when asked "How will your helicopter experience make you a better pitcher this year?", Mr. Kensing responded "It makes me know I want one, so I need to make more money." In other words, the driving force behind Mr. Kensing's desire to improve his pitching is not personal satisfaction, the desire to help his team, or the goal of pleasing his fans with his good performance, or the ability money to help support worthy causes, but rather the main reason why Mr. Kensing wants to improve his pitching is so that he can purchase a helicopter to enable him to kill more animals.

I believe many Marlins fans share our outrage at these statements, and are not comfortable knowing that the money they pay for tickets to see the Marlins, will be used in part by their pitcher to finance his sadistic pleasure in terrifying and then killing innocent animals in such a non-sporting way.

Whether they want to be or not, professional athletes are role models, especially for our children, and the last thing our youth needs in this violence-prone era is a Marlins pitcher who tells our youth unabashedly that killing is thrilling, and that a gun is fun. Our coalition joins other sensitive people in our strong condemnation of Mr. Kensing's "Vick"timization of wild pigs and other wild animals. We therefore strongly urge the leadership of the Marlins not to "play ball" with animal cruelty and to reprimand Mr. Kensing for his abysmal behavior, and for spreading his abhorrent views to the public. We also urge you to publicly state that the Marlins ownership and management does not share these odious views.

Should you not respond to this correspondence within 10 days of the date of this letter, and advise us that you intend to take appropriate action to deal with this unfortunate situation, the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition will urge all other like-minded organizations and individuals not to lend their support, whether financial, or in any other way, to an organization that condones such abysmal behavior and sentiments, and sets such a poor example for our youth. We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Barry Silver Co-chair of the Palm Beach Environmental Coalition