About That “To All You Hunters” Newspaper Clipping

A newspaper clipping has circulated online for years which highlights a statement which begins, “To all you hunters who kill animals for food…” Today we look at the origins of this clipping.

Origins

The quote in question was published in January 2009 by the Daily Journal from Kankakee, Illinois. It is a transcript of a call made to the paper’s Speakout phone line. The full quote reads:

To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed.

The Daily Journal describes its Speakout as, “…a 24-hour phone line provided to give readers a chance to voice their opinions. The Daily Journal edits the remarks for taste, fairness, clarity and grammar.”

A local forum discussing the quote points out that the clipping was aired on The Tonight Show with jay Leno on February 2, 2009. As of this writing, a clip from that show is not available online.

We know that the quote is real, but what isn’t clear is whether the caller was serious or simply being sarcastic. One commenter on the local forum suggested that it wasn’t serious.”Don’t people realize that half the calls made to Speakout are jokes? Do you honestly believe that caller believed what he said?”

Comments on the original article – dated January 12, 2009 – were found on the Internet Archive at the time this article was written, although it has since been removed from that site. Some readers there suggested that it may have been a joke.

“Ok…the meat comment…has to be a joke. Nobody can be that dumb,” one commenter wrote. Another stated, “I’d like to think this was called in and spoken tongue-in-cheek, but on the chance that it wasn’t… that is one of the funniest things I think I’ve ever read in Speakout – who knew the grocery stores MADE meat?”

As of late 2015, the clipping continues to circulate online, although one version incorrectly states that it came from a San Francisco newspaper.

Bottom Line

The quote which begins “To all you hunters…” is real and was published by the Kankakee Daily Journal in January 2009. It is a transcript of a call made to the paper’s Speakout phone line. Some readers have suggested that the call was a joke, but there is no way to know for sure.

Updated July 3, 2016
Originally published November 2015