Writing letters to the editor is an important way to get the word out. PETA has letter writing tips. Sample Letters to the Editor:Below is a letter about pheasant stocking which was printed in the Concord Monitor. Pheasant hunting season in NH is from October 1-December 31. Sadly, pheasant hunting season in NH will begin October 1st. Pheasant hunting is one of the most distasteful forms of hunting, being not much more than an artificial canned hunt. It has nothing to do with fair chase or wildlife management. It has nothing to do with reintroduction of a species. Pheasant stocking is a program of NH Fish and Game where 13,500 non-native, farm-raised pheasants will be released into hunting fields around the state. Hunters watch in wait and merely moments after the crates are opened, begin shooting, as these basically tame animals are taking their first flights of freedom. I have witnessed this myself.I have videotaped the merciless killing of these Chinese ring-necked pheasants, who are prized for their stunning beauty. I have on tape pheasants injured in transport being released and unable to fly, only able to run for cover. I have on tape untrained hunters clumsily and repeatedly karate chopping the neck of a pheasant shot from the sky badly injured, but not yet dead. Next year, as last year, some 13,500 more pheasants will be bought then released in NH because pheasants just can’t live long in the NH environment.Pheasant hunting permits cover the cost of the pheasants, but not the overhead costs of the program in the range of $20,000/year. The finances at the NH Fish and Game Department are in a mess and this is a waste of money that could be put to better use. Please contact us at nhanimalrights.org to help us end pheasant stocking in NH. With your help we can be successful and ban pheasant stocking once and for all. This letter was printed in the Valley News.To the Editor:Thank you to Dartmouth College for having distinguished primatologist Jane Goodall as a guest speaker on November 11, 2008. What an inspiration she is. An animal lover from a very young age, she was able to live her dream by going to Tanzania to study the behavior of wild chimpanzees.As I sat listening to her speak, the irony of Ms. Goodall at Dartmouth did not elude me. Here was Jane Goodall, a respected scientist adamantly opposed to animals being used in research, speaking to a packed audience at a college that uses primates in “research.” Research that inflicts pain and suffering on creatures who are so much like ourselves, as Jane Goodall could tell you. I wonder if any of the Dartmouth animal researchers were in the hall when she spoke. I wonder how they felt to be in the presence of such a remarkable woman who is against what they do, and said so during the course of her talk in her characteristic subtle, yet crystal clear way. The story she ended her inspiring talk with was about a man named Rick Swope who saved a chimpanzee from drowning at the Detroit Zoo a few years ago. When asked why he risked his life to save the chimp he said, “When I looked into his eyes, I saw the eyes of a man, and they were asking won’t anybody help me?” As Jane pointed out, once you have looked in an animal’s eyes and experienced this for yourself, you are never the same. This same pleading question can be seen in the eyes of animals staring from behind the bars of barren cages in research laboratories across this country. Jane Goodall speaks around the country in hopes to awaken our conscience, because when your conscience is awakened, you will always see those eyes, and they will urge you to help them. Animal researchers, including those at Dartmouth, could learn a lot from Jane Goodall and from the eyes of their prisoners, if only they would listen. |
