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WWE Star Shawn Michaels Responds To Heavy Criticism From PETA
Shawn Michaels might be best known for slamming down his prey in the WWE ring, but the retired pro wrestler is now allowing cameras to capture another of his talents – hunting and eating all sorts of wildlife.
Michaels has teamed up with his good friend and host Keith Mark for the new Outdoor Channel Show “Shawn Michaels MacMillan River Adventures,” which features the duo coming face-to-face with some of the biggest game animals in the world. And Michaels insists this is more than just your typical hunting series.
“You see the standard hunting show; it’s an outdoor television show. A lot of times, it’s just a guy sitting in a tree, waiting on an animal. I don’t think it does it justice and I don’t think it captures the enjoyment and the splendor of the incredible outdoors and the feeling of being out there,” Michaels told FOX411’s Pop Tarts.”That’s something that we wanted to do, something I thoroughly enjoy doing in my life and with my family. To accurately portray that to people, it’s got to be done differently. There’s so much more to it. You hear people encouraging people to get into the outdoors and how awesome it is, but nobody ever really captures this on camera. That’s what we wanted to do.”
Nonetheless, not everyone is looking forward to seeing the 45-year-old Texas native slaughter and swallow animals.
“Jeffrey Dahmer ate everything he killed, too, but that didn't justify taking innocent lives,” a representative for the animal rights group PETA said in response to the show.
Dahmer was of course an American serial killer who murdered and ate parts of seventeen males between 1978 and 1991.
But Michaels isn’t concerned about any backlash pertaining to the show or his passion for hunting.
“In every aspect of my life, I live under the protection of and in accordance to the laws of this nation. At the end of the day, it’s a wildlife biological fact and a conservation fact that the game must be managed. There’s only so much habitat, i.e. food, out there. If you have 100 acres worth of food and you’ve got 500 animals out there, the young ones and the old ones are going to starve to death, because they can’t compete,” Michaels said. “When they starve, they start to eat things they shouldn’t be eating and spread disease not only to them, but to us.”
And in the Michaels household, trips to the grocery store are becoming few and far between.
“We are a family that lives probably 90 percent on wild game. We’re certainly working our way toward 100 percent self-sufficient. Looking to raise chickens for eggs, things of that nature, start a garden. We enjoy the simple life,” he added. “It’s a beautiful and wonderful adventure being out there. Hunting and fishing, processing your own game and eating what you hunt – that’s a long and arduous process, but a joyful kind of work. The satisfaction that you get when you see the look of affirmation and validation on the face of my son when he’s supplied dinner for the family, it’s an awesome thing, and I think a lot of people are missing out on that these days.”
“Shawn Michaels' MacMillan River Adventures” airs Tuesdays on the Outdoor Channel at 11:30pm ET.
Source: Fox News