The Burlington Free Press ran a letter to the editor Oct. 28 in which the writer advocated that “before the next annual killing season, other residents be awarded legal permits to kill hunters…” The letter was written by Ethan A.H. Sims of Shelburne, Vt., in response to the opening of Vermont’s moose season.

Here’s the full text of Sims’ letter:

Take a Few Hunters Along with the Moose

On this beautiful day we learn that about 1,251 hunters are taking to the woods with legal permits to “pursue prized quarry.” Certainly the members of various humane organizations do not approve. I suggest that before the next annual killing season, other residents be awarded legal permits to kill hunters who will be out to kill these beautiful, non-destructive animals. Or the government could just rule out all this primitive killing.

ETHAN A.H. SIMS
Shelburne

After overwhelming outrage from the hunting community, the newspaper has written an apology for running the offensive letter and has since removed it from its website.

The commissioner of the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, Wayne Laroche, has also weighed in on this issue via an op-ed that ran in Thursday’s Burlington Free Press. Laroche’s piece justly condemns Sims’ ignorant letter and uses it as an opportunity to educate the public about the important role that hunters play in wildlife management. To read the full text of Laroche’s op-ed, click here.

Sims’ threatening letter, which borders on being criminal, especially if any hunters are actually harmed, shows just how far anti-hunters will go to end hunting. The newspaper was wrong for printing it and indeed owes every hunter in this country an apology.

On the other hand, Laroche and the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife should be applauded for their response to this issue and for taking the time to educate the public about the benefits of hunting and the overwhelming justification for a moose hunt. 

After months of heated debate on how best to handle the overpopulated deer herd in Kansas City’s Shawnee Mission Park, the Johnson County Park and Recreation District has decided to allow sharpshooters and bowhunters to thin the herd.

That decision, as expected, has drawn objections from animal rights activists and anti-hunters. Instead of hunting the deer, some local residents have offered their own suggestions for handling the park’s deer problem.

From the Kansas City News:

One woman, who lives nearby, suggested scores of animal rights activists line up along the bank of the man-made lake and fan out methodically through the park, banging pots and pans to startle the deer out of the 1,200-acre green space.

Another resident proposed trucking in unseemly amounts of lion manure from the Kansas City Zoo, spreading it around Shawnee Mission Park and repelling the deer with the stench of their predators’ poop.

Most famously, the members of Bite Club of KC, submitted the concept of a Deer Auto-Assembler, which would create a deer preserve, possibly with an observation tower for animal-loving tourists.

The scary part is these were serious suggestions, which illustrate just how little animal rights activists understand wildlife management. None of these “solutions” get to the heart of the problem, which is that there are too many deer in the park and they have over-browsed their habitat. Scaring the deer out of the park by banging pots and pans (which would be virtually impossible and, at best, temporary) doesn’t solve the problem. Scaring deer out of the park with manure from lions (which aren’t a whitetail deer’s natural predator anyway) doesn’t solve the problem. And the park is already a deer preserve—that’s how they got overpopulated in the first place. 

Actually removing deer from the park is the only real solution, and that means thinning the herd through hunting. It’s a step that should have been taken years ago before the population got out of control. It’s what’s best for the park, the health of the deer and, whether they realize it or not, the people who live near the park. Doing nothing, which is essentially what the antis want, is what created the problem in the first place.

If the park is truly serious about managing its deer, then this hunt should be held annually and not just this year. To do otherwise makes about as much sense as banging pots and pans or dumping lion feces to scare the deer away.