LETTER 1

To the editor:

In response to recent attacks made on hunters in Monday’s Statesman, I felt it was my duty as a proud participator in the so-called “blood sport” to explain how it is possible for a hunter to love what he or she kills. The love a hunter has for his prey is not the fuzzy bunny love that some people have for their pet dog. The love we experience for wildlife is more along the lines of a deep respect that can only be experienced through personally taking the life of your food.

Growing up, my father taught me an important principle. Every day, Americans walk into their local grocery store and pick up a box of Lucky Charms, a 6-pack of Pepsi and a package of chicken breasts, giving no more heed to the life of the animal in the package than to the Pepsi. In contrast, a hunter with good ethics cleanly dispatches an animal with a well-placed shot, guts it, packs it out of the woods and butchers it all before it ever gets to their mouth. Sitting down to a dinner of healthy wild game which you have worked hard for shows respect and even love for that animal that gave its life.

When a lot of people think of environment and nature, they take humans out of the equation and say everything not human is natural and wild. Whether you like it or not, humans have been on top of Earth’s food chain for the past 130,000 years. During that time, animals have evolved with humans as their top predators. If you were to stop the hunting of animals by humans, the populations would go out of control and eventually fall to lower numbers than they are today, due to many proven ecological factors.

The truth of the matter is that a person who buys a hunting license does more for the preservation of that animal than a person who joins PETA and protests against hunters. The money raised from trophy hunting tags in Africa is the only thing that keeps a lot of those parks and wildlife preserves running.

As a hunter and future wildlife biologist, I hope you will better understand the love and respect a hunter can have for animal that he or she harvests.

John Anderson