2 reasons to avoid Jimmy John’s

The founder of the Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich chain is a big game hunter who has shot and killed animals for sport and trophy photos, including an elephant and a leopard. That may not have anything to do with the quality of the chain’s food, but it does indicate the quality of the man behind the sandwiches.

So these are two reasons to eat elsewhere: one dead African elephant and one dead Delta leopard, hunted down and killed by Jimmy John Liautaud in 2010, as the photos by Johan Caliz Safaris show.

Note that this article was published on ecoExplorer in 2013, and is being re-published today because of outrage over the killing of Cecil, a beloved and protected lion, in Zimbabwe by another American game hunter, the Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer

The fine print under the photo above says “Jimmy John Liautaud with 79lbs tusker”.

Jimmy John, big game hunter

Congratulations, Jimmy John. we’re sure all your franchise owners are happy to know how you spend the profits they earn for you. Maybe customers will think twice about helping you earn more money from your cold cuts and soft drinks so you can pose with a big grin alongside more big game you shoot and kill for fun.

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Okay, these photos are dated 2010, but I’ve just become aware of them, and this article on the website Smile Politely.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a meat eater, and I love fish, too, so I’m not opposed to killing an animal for food. But paying thousands of dollars for a safari to kill beautiful – even endangered – animals so you can have your photo taken with the dead body? Um – no.

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Let’s also give a thumbs down to Johan Calitz Safaris, and the nations of Bostwana, Mozambique and Tanzania which allow these sport hunting safaris at the same time they are supposedly trying to save endangered big game from poachers.

Check out the Johan Calitz Safaris website, with photos of other big game hunters in addition to Jimmy John Liautaud posing alongside their kills – mostly elephants, but also Cape buffalo and a leopard.

It’s enough to make you upchuck your gourmet sandwich.

Consumers boycott unethical businesses

Here’s more food for thought (pun intended) – an article in the Chicago Tribune about consumer boycotts of businesses like Jimmy John’s whose business or personal ethics we just don’t like.

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