Rebuttal to: Hunting -- It's bad for animals, it's bad for America
by r.gehr@luckymail.com

You could not be more wrong in this article. I first of would like to tell you that I am a avid hunter and have been since I was 7, its in my family. Were I'm from hunting is done to put food on the table. Moreover, it puts food on the table that is NOT cloned, NOT chocked full of growth hormones, NOT chemically altered, NOT infected with mad-cow disease, NOT inflected with anthrax, NOT cost prohibitive. Another area I would like to correct you on is that it is a fact that hunting keeps populations in check. The sudden clash of wildlife and humans in autumn and fall is NOT due to hunters flushing deer from the forest to the roads. In the early fall deer, along with other animals, go into rut. This is when they breed and it is scientifically proven that when this happens the bucks start to push doe and deer begin to move at all hours of the day. Making them unpredictable and wandering into traffic. Hunting has been on this Earth since the first humans, ALL races have participated in hunting and none have been prohibited. Relating hunting to racism is possibly one of the most incorrect and offensive things I have ever read. Hunting is done all over the world by all races, it is apart of this nation and apart of this world. People, such as your self, view hunting as "cruel" and "wrong", when in fact hunters do everything in their power to put the animal through as little pain and suffering as possible. When we do injure a animal and don't kill it, it tears at us and it is heart breaking. However there are people that fight dogs and chickens, and don't take care of their pets and that puts 100x more suffering on the animal than hunting does. Most mof the time the animal is dead as soon as the bullet hits them. Hunting does not glorify the gun, hunting glorify's nature and the animal. When you hunt you preserve and take care of nature, many hunters manage the land and keep out invasive species through hunting. Hunting in no way glorifys guns and violence. Before I ever stepped foot in the woods my dad taught me the dangers of a gun, he taught me how to use and treat a gun with respect. "Guns are not toys and are NEVER to be pointed at another person" and " Watch your barrel" were words my father used every time I picked up a rifle. People who hunt are never the people you see holding up a store or robbing a bank. The people who do that sort of thing are people who have no respect for human life and no respect for themselves. When I have my own kids hunting and taking care of nature will be one of the many lessons I will teach them. I only hope to instill in them what my father has instilled in me. Hunting in is not cruel, hunting is tradition.