Game Wardens: Hunting vs. Poaching
I take offense at your Dec. 15 article “The Night of the Hunter” because of its irresponsible use of the title “hunter.” In several different paragraphs, the writer refers to poachers as “hunters.”
Even though this article is about a California (Department of Fish and Game) warden on his night patrol, it casts a bad reflection of legitimate hunters to non-hunting residents. Please note the word “non,” not “anti.”
The non-hunting people who have already come to the conclusion that hunting is the needless slaughter of animals has done so by articles such as the one printed Dec. 15. The article makes hunters out to be bad people. We are not. There is a big difference between poachers and hunters. Poachers illegally shoot game for personal gain. A true hunter is a law-abiding individual who, in the spirit of fair chase, harvests game animals for food, not to take parts of the animals and sell them.
It is writers like this one who, instead of gathering all the correct information, only piece together portions. With this type of journalism, the public is being very misinformed on the difference between what true hunting is and what being a poacher is.
ANTHONY J. TOBIN
El Monte
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