• Jeep Learns That Hunters Fire Back – As reported in the March Update newsletter, Daimler-Chrysler officials responded to a flood of calls, faxes and e-mails, from sportsmen, generated by an alert from the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. Three days after the call to action, Jeff Bell, vice president of marketing communications, informed the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance that it would no longer run the ad.

• Golden Grahams Ends Deal with Anti-Hunting Organization – In December, 2001, General Mills gave a boost to the nation’s largest animal rights organization by distributing free calendars, produced by the Humane Society of the United States, in marked boxes of Golden Grahams cereal. Sportsmen sent scores of comments to the cereal company after being alerted to the situation by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. General Mills has since heeded sportsmen’s voices. The promotion has ended and is not to be resumed.

• Baby Einstein Retracts Support of ASPCA – The Baby Einstein Company, a company that markets products to expose children to poetry, art and music, has ended its ties with a national anti-hunting group. In June, 2001, Julie Clark, the president of Baby Einstein Company, told the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance that she "absolutely supports" the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance asked sportsmen to help educate Ms. Clark about our role in wildlife conservation. A recent message from Ms. Clark states that she no longer contributes to the ASPCA.

Sportsmen and sportswomen should understand the impact they can have towards educating businesses, government and legislators. Forty million sportsmen translate into a powerful block of customers and voters. Your opinion does matter, yet no one will know your opinion unless you take the time to express it.