Skip to content

Letter: Hunters insulted across Canada

Dear Editor,

As a hunter, I’m obviously not overly impressed with your column [Gardeners – the real tough guys, May 13 Odd Thoughts, Langley Advance]. I’m saddened to see that your paper found it perfectly fine to insult hundreds of thousands of hunters in this country by calling us all irresponsible, law-breaking alcoholics… and also, for whatever reason, overweight.

Let’s clear some things up: it’s actually illegal to hunt or operate a firearm under the influence of alcohol. Us fat killing machines raining bullets all over the place wait until our killing sprees are completed and our guns locked up securely before we get right salty.

And our poor victims are selected by what season it is, not which cuddly creature we’d like to drunkenly annihilate that afternoon.

Sarcasm aside, hunting regulations are extremely strict, and every hunter has to complete a Hunters Education Course and pass a test before being allowed to apply for the license, not to mention the firearm laws in this country that make it extremely difficult for a person to obtain a firearm. That also comes with stringent testing, as well as extensive background checks done by the RCMP, which includes interviews of associates to determine any risk whatsoever of the applicant using a firearm irresponsibly (say, while drunk in a blind).

Any hunter not following the rules (no alcohol being a big one) is probably not a licensed hunter and would be considered a poacher.

Hunters do not hate animals or kill them for giggles. We are actually the number one contributors to wildlife conservation. Look it up.

Although I know that as the editor of this news source as well as the writer of the column you probably don’t care, I thought that maybe you’d like to get a few facts straight before alienating and insulting a good portion of your readers. I have a feeling you’ll have a busy day reading letters like mine.

Ericka Verhulst, via email