Editor’s Note: Over the past few weeks, we have received a large number of Letters to the Editor concerning two Guest Posts on our Yonkerstimes.com website. One post highlighted Fishing Charters in the area, while the second discussed hunting.
Neither of these posts appeared in the print version of Westchester Rising or Yonkers Rising. But our readers submitted letters to the editor for the newspaper, so we have decided to print them.
While we do not agree with either of the arguments presented in the letters, namely that Fishing and Hunting should not be reported on, we do believe in their right to be heard.
Dear Sir:
I read the article about the glories of hunting, it actually made me sick at the stomach. You failed to mention that the end result is a dead or badly injured living beautiful creature that will suffer and die and for what? Hunting is something from the past, men do not have to teach their sons the macho act of having a powerful gun and going out into the small remaining Forrest or woods to search for a beautiful gentle deer to shoot your high powered rifle and kill or maim this beautiful gentle animal that is perhaps the mother of a young deer that needs it’s mother to survive. And this is called sport? However, we think of sports as a game of equals that play to win but in this case, perhaps it is far from sportsman conduct as one athlete has a high power rifle and the other one has nothing. A skilled “hunter” shoots to kill but most of today’s hunters do not have a skill as hunting is not what it used to be and perhaps the bullet only injures and the animal suffers until it bleeds to death and often it takes a while. I seriously question that there are any good results unless the hunter gains pleasure in seeing suffering and/or death. Surely this is not something you want to encourage your young son to attempt.
You get the picture. Some of us are offended, disgusted angered over your words. What happened to live and let live, the intense beauty of deer, foxes, birds, is extremely meaningful to many if not most of us. There are fewer and fewer animals today–no room for them in our progressive world. They live their lives so beautifully, so different from humans and yet they have their own world. I pity the people who don’t realize this and their lives don’t include learning of their wonderment–how sad. To know that there are people taking their amazing lives for sport? It is a terrible travesty!!
Connie Mogull
Mamaroneck, NY
Dear Editor Dan Murphy
Please do not run any more articles on the cruel practice of hunting, and at minimum, ethically and fairly publish humane responses to this current spate of animal cruelty-as-entertainment articles.
Sincerely
Tobi Zausner
As a long-time animal advocate, I am dismayed by the continual disregard given to fish. Fish, like all animals, are sentient beings capable of feeling fear, pain and suffering. And if the abject cruelty directed towards these innocent creatures isn’t enough to dissuade “adventure-seeking” individuals, the environmental impact of fishing should: it is devastating to the oceans fish call home, and waterways everywhere. I have witnessed “fisherman” polluting the waters with trash and fishing lines that are deadly for many sea creatures. Harming animals, including fish, should not be promoted as an adventure.
Christina DeRespiris, New Rochelle
To The Editor:
I am horrified to see the list of “fishing tours”! this is just another inhumane sport and should not be supported. hopefully you’ll backtrack on your stand in this matter.
Joyce Baum, New Rochelle
