A little more sensitivity needed

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To the Editor:

I’m not sure whose ultimate decision it was to choose last week’s cover photo and headline, but I found it distasteful, to say the least. I am not a vegan or vegetarian, but I do love animals. I am totally aware that to keep the Island healthy there is a need to control the deer population. With that said I should not have to view what others kill. I found the three-year-old beautiful deer with its cheek slit, gory and heinous. And then to title it “Fall Harvest.” Really?

I for one do not celebrate the killing of other creatures. I cannot even fish any longer because my conscience won’t let me. I know — what a baby.

I think it’s great people want to live close to nature and off the land, and I also realize venison is sought after because of its lean meat, but I still don’t want to witness the kill, slaughter, and dismemberment I have witnessed since moving here. Hunters can hunt, but I don’t need to see your carcasses, skeletons, and unwanted body parts on a shell pile at the Lagoon, or rotting in the woods while on a dog walk. It’s like a violent murder happened and I want no part of it. Fall harvest sounds like picking grapes, kale, apples or something you planted and nurtured. This is not what I’m feeling or seeing.

The killing of the grizzly bear was another story I could have done without. I think it’s an ancient ritual. I cannot look into another set of eyes and want to kill it. I don’t understand and don’t want to.

So, in the end, I just really want a little more sensitivity around those who do not hunt or are excited by the kill of another. What I see in that photo is just too much: eight men with guns and one innocent unarmed creature. In my opinion, it’s pathetic.

You can keep your blood and guns to yourselves, I don’t need to see them. I appreciate front page warnings about hunters on the loose, but maybe a man in camouflage would be scary enough in today’s day and age.

Billie Sullivan

Vineyard Haven