This is in response to the story the Sun Journal ran about Ed McPherson running bear with dogs (Aug. 28). If the intent of the story was to entice support for the hounds-man’s view, it did the opposite. I have been a hunter all my life. I have taught my children how to hunt. I believe in a fair chase. What these guides do cannot be called hunting.

Their own statements prove their weak hunting skills. I have used hounds in the pursuit of rabbits. Never did I have to bait the game to make it easier for the dogs. We would use our ears and listen to the dogs. We never considered using telemetry devices, directional antennae or mercury switches. Have these guys lost all the hunter’s skills?

How exciting it must be to shoot Yogi, stuffing himself with jelly doughnuts while raiding that picnic basket. It must be rewarding, chasing bear to exhaustion, then shooting them out of trees. What if the bear chooses not to tree? Are these guides willing to pay thousands of dollars to veterinarians to save a bear-mauled dog. What about the dogs that die? That must be an image that you don’t want the voters to see.

If these guides’ skills get any weaker, they’ll have to fence in land, breed bear, then slaughter them like a butcher for their patrons. It’s not that far a leap from what these men are doing now.

Paul Duquette, North Monmouth