2/27/04
Dear York Daily Record
Your editorial, "Hunters don't need amendment" (2/20/04),
is correct in declaring that the proposed constitutional amendment to
protect the right to hunt and fish is not needed. It is incorrect, however,
in its assumption that animal activists do not want to end hunting.
As an animal rights activist of 20 years standing, I can
unequivocally tell you that yes, we do intend to end hunting. While, yes,
hunters are ignorant, cruel, and paranoid, they are correct that we have
every intention of sending hunting hurtling into the trash bin of history,
to join slavery, non-enfranchisement of women, and child labor.
Humans descend into the depths of depravity, in seemingly
infinite ways, in their pursuit of recreation and profit. Invariably, they
expect the government to protect them, not their victims. The government
frequently complies.
Hunting is on the decline, due to many reasons: fewer
people living in rural areas; an abundance of other activities for children;
and most importantly, the inevitable raising of human consciousness toward
animals. Those who profit from hunting/fishing and those unable to find
creative, rather than destructive, hobbies are in a panic.
Incremental progress toward justice is followed by
repressive measures designed to maintain the unjust status quo. Animal
abusers feel that since moral constraints do not apply to them, legal ones
should not, either. What better course, for this tiny percentage (about 7%)
of Pennsylvanians who hunt, than to perversely force the law to protect what
should, in fact, be banned?
In the 19th Century, President Buchanan attempted to stop
the abolitionist momentum with a constitutional amendment legalizing
slavery. Illinois tried to do the same with a state amendment. Unhappily for
the slavers, these amendments failed, while the Thirteenth Amendment, which
banned slavery in the United States, became law.
Our laws should move ethically forward, though the less
evolved few try to drag us back into the Dark Ages.
What is needed is a federal constitutional amendment to
protect animals and humans from recreational, serial animal killers. Humans
have the right to live free of gunfire in our communities; to be safe inside
or outside our homes and cars from being shot; to not have to witness bloody
snow and wounded, suffering, or dead animals in our neighborhoods; to not
have to post OUR own property against animal killers; and to not be afraid
that our children's schoolmates are hunters who lack compassion, but possess
weapons.
Animals have the right to live free of the rapacity of
humans.
Go to
www.all-creatures.org/cash to learn more about
why hunting should be banned.
Susan Gordon, Representative
The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
Box 562
New Paltz, NY 12561
