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 and ethics 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.
The fine print under the photo above says “Jimmy John Liautaud with 79lbs tusker”.
This article was published originally on ecoExplorer in 2013.
It 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
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.
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.
ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.
Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.
Also follow my NYC website, NYC Travel Guru
Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter
Then sleep soundly over this mans enjoyment of killing these animals for sport. I however can’t and I will never visit this establishment and will tell my family and friends to do the same
But JJ’s makes the best sandwhiches. Making sandwhiches great again. I wholeheartedly ( pun ) approve!
My son also alert me to an app called Buycott, that helps people organize their everyday shopping to sort out brands to support and to avoid.
Thanks! I have the app on my smartphone but didn’t think to include it in this article.
I wish your site would let me upload a photo I have of Jimmy John posing over a rhino kill. Contact me and I will send it.
Send an me an email to evelyn@ecoxplorer.com and I’ll post it.
Thanks for your interest in this subject, and for taking the time to contact me.