Editor, The News:
Once again, it’s that time of year when walking on the dike one hears the sound of shotguns firing – a sound that shatters the peace and quiet of a pleasant walk.
I can hear the hunters saying right now, “You bleeding heart anti-hunting activists!”
True, but I have another purpose in mind. Last year when my husband and I were walking with our dog on the dike two hunters were on the parallel dike. One hunter shot at a passing duck, either wounding it or killing it. The other hunter asked him if he was going to go and get it, to which the hunter who had shot the duck replied no.
When speaking with someone this morning on the dike about the hunting, he told us that last year he had a mortally wounded duck land on his car. He was so upset that all he could do was drive away, shaking. He said it was too severely injured to even consider taking it to the vet.
What is the point to hunting? Are you doing it to stock your freezer, or are you doing it just to shoot your gun for the fun of killing something?
My husband and I have watched these ducks and geese from hatchlings to adults. We have watched the loving care the parents have taken of their babies, probably far better care than most humans do. Geese mate for life. If their mate gets shot they will not mate again. It is heartbreaking to see a solo goose flying along the dike honking for his or her mate.
The parents are very protective and stay with the goslings and ducklings even after they are adults.
So, hunters, when you shoot those ducks and geese for pleasure and leave them lying in the field dead or mortally wounded in agony, remember that you are killing someone’s mother or father or daughter or son. Do you really take that much pleasure knowing you are destroying a family?
Barb Stevens