Day of the Hunter

In Roger Simon’s essay on the honesty of hunters (“The Hunter Seeks His Prey: It Is Himself,” Dec. 13) he portrays all hunters as poachers, drunks, clumsy idiots and homicidal maniacs who walk around the woods shooting everything that moves, including other hunters. He adds, “But if hunters didn’t shoot themselves or each other, gosh darn it, who else can we depend on?”

That statement shows his callous regard for human life, which is infinitely more valuable than that of animals. Hunting is safer than football, baseball or just about any other sport you can think of. The risk of accidental death from firearms, including non-hunting cases, is the same as choking to death on your food.

The lure of hunting is the adventure of the sport: the camping, the hiking and the challenge of man against nature. The goal is to obtain food. Anti-hunting people have a revulsion toward the thought of where food comes from. Be it deer or cows, animals must die for humans to live. Hamburger just does not spontaneously appear Saran-wrapped in the supermarket.

DAVID STUCK

Canoga Park