Among the silliest things I’ve seen written was a letter in which someone, who was advocating for a deer cull, suggested that a cull would not be inhumane to the deer.
Has the person in question ever been shot? Or hit with a bow and arrow? Only an utterly unsympathetic and very unwise person would suggest that killing a deer is not a bad thing. It may be necessary to obtain them for food and it may be necessary to render mercy unto them when they are suffering, but nobody (on earth at least) knows what a deer may or may not think or feel about being shot or hit.
Hunters are among the most unsympathetic people and among the least respectable (in terms of their interests) in my opinion. They are called “sportsmen” rather than “killers” when that is precisely what they do, namely kill. They kill animals, and not in a very “sporting” manner, therefore they have no right to be referred to as sportsmen or sportswomen.
As for suggesting that hunting is no worse than killing cows for food, the comparison is ridiculous as cows are raised (as unfortunate as it may be) to be food and they are generally raised in a responsible fashion, whereas hunting wildlife populations is often done without controls and/or without the assurance that future stocks will be kept to a reasonable level.
On to the matter of the recent Ironman. Although I am happy for those who competed in the event and those who won it, I am disturbed that even after 10 p.m. I was encountering obstacles (cars and runners) while trying to drive to work.
If I had known that the event would run that late, I would’ve taken the highway into town. Several cars failed to drive safely or use their “hazard lights” when stopping in the middle of Eastside Road (to pick up someone?) and I encountered several runners who were slightly lit up but still a traffic hazard.
I showed them more courtesy than they showed me by very carefully approaching and then passing by them. Why was the road not blocked to traffic still, or at least warning signs indicating that the run was still in progress?
Patrick Longworth
Okanagan Falls