Former Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson is calling on fans to protest the band's upcoming show at a hunting convention that will feature Donald Trump Jr. as a keynote speaker. The convention will also auction a trip to Alaska with Trump Jr. to hunt deer and duck.
The Beach Boys are scheduled to perform Wednesday at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada.
Longtime bandmates Mike Love and Bruce Johnston will appear on stage together but the remaining original members, Wilson and Al Jardine, are appalled.
"This organization supports trophy hunting, which both Al and I are emphatically opposed to," Brian Wilson wrote in a tweet that included a link to a Change.org petition. "There’s nothing we can do personally to stop the show, so please join us in signing the petition."
The petition calls on fans to stop buying Beach Boys music, attending the band's shows, and purchasing merchandise until it withdraws from the convention and publicly states its "opposition to this sick 'sport' of killing animals for 'fun.'"
The petition adds that fans will "call on the Beach Boys' record label, agent and publicists to disown the Beach Boys, and on members of the public to protest at forthcoming Beach Boys concerts" unless the band chooses to pull out of the event, which spans over four days.
The event will conclude on Saturday with a keynote address by Trump Jr. and the auction of a seven-day Alaskan hunting trip.
Animal rights activists have previously criticized Trump Jr. for his love of trophy hunting, but the president's son has argued that it is essential to conservation efforts, the Daily Mail reported.
In response, thousands of outraged fans have aired their views on the petition's website.
"Killing as entertainment is barbaric and sociopathic," wrote one supporter.
"This is abhorrently immoral. Shame on all the trophy hunters. Haven't we evolved enough to know that practices like this are archaic?" another signee wrote.
The petition is aiming to garner 150,000 signatures.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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