“[Actor] Matthew McConaughey has a side business,” tmz.com reports, “letting people onto his property to hunt caged-in animals, and it has enraged animal rights activists.” Caged-in? Animals? “Someone connected with the LP Ranch tells TMZ there are 22,000 acres for the animals to roam, but animal rights groups claim the deer hang by the feeding area, which makes them easy targets.” I wonder if anti-hunting groups have a specific number in mind. You know: it’s not hunting unless the deer have a 51 percent chance of escaping. Of course, that also depends on the hunter’s accuracy. Maybe we should handicap hunters! (Shades of Harrison Bergeron.) Anyway, Matt’s rep eventually reached out to TMZ . . .
The actor’s nephew, Madison McConaughey — the ranch cattle manager — tells TMZ they’ve had death threats from people who don’t understand the nature of what they do. He says, “People are disgusted with us but we’re disgusted with them.”
Madison adds, people who come there do so for the “hunting experience” and he says “We’re proud of what we do.”
Another ranch manager tells us, “No meat goes to waste after the hunts. It helps feed our families.”
12:15 PM PT — Matt’s rep got back to TMZ and said he hasn’t owned the ranch since 2011. The website to the ranch, however, still lists Matt as “co-owner.”
Way to throw your family under the bus. As an adoptive Texan, Matthew McConaughey and the phrase “all hat and no cattle” are now inexorably linked in my mind. Yours?