Dying Youth’s Wish for Bear Hunt

* That extremist anti-hunting groups tried to spoil a terminally ill young man’s dream (“Boy’s Bear-Hunt Wish Puts Foundation in Cross Hairs,” May 11) and tarnish the image of an admirable organization such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation to advance their ill-thought agenda is despicable.

The greatest--and most telling--illustration of animal rightists’ logic and morality is found in the comments by Gretchen Wyler, president of L.A.-based Ark Trust. Wyler proposed that the young man spend time on the set of a James Bond film--where he can watch people being killed!

“The foundation will never be able to sustain the damage . . . to their image, especially in the Hollywood community,” warns Wyler. Does anyone else see the irony of this? Hollywood--whose mainstay is death and violence--should be the nation’s moral compass?

I applaud the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Safari Club International for making the young man’s dream a reality and rejecting the animal rights movement, which places more value on animal life than human life.

MIKE NORRIS

Long Beach

* How wonderful! Make-A-Wish Foundation has granted a terminally ill child with one last dying wish. . . approval to take an innocent life for an upcoming death.

Supporters to the foul deed not only came up with the $4,000 in airline tickets to Alaska but also supplied the rifle, binoculars and hunting clothing, all for the privilege of killing a harmless kodiak bear.

One time or another, each of us has wanted to be granted that “one” last wish. Does this mean we can dismiss moral responsibilities in our thoughts?

It’s tragic enough to recognize that too many young people have lost their innocence and direction, but the adults in Make-A-Wish Foundation have terminated their own moral and ethical convictions.

BARNARD SACKETT

West Hollywood

* As a child (before I could exert control over my own choice of activities), I was taken on countless trips also by a father who killed everything he could that swam or flew or walked. Perhaps if this teenager had lived long enough, he might have been able to see the ugliness of this kind of “enter- tainment.”

What is irresponsible is that an organization of adults, assumably old enough to see the ugliness of killing for sport, has actually made this killing possible.

MAXINE ANDERSON-GREFE

Laguna Beach