This is in response to Timothy C. Maddocks’ letter ( ‘Recreational Murder,’ Jan. 8). I am a hunter and enjoy eating the flesh of wild animals.

I notice many protectors of nature rail against the sport of hunting, but do they have any understanding of animal husbandry? Do they understand that if these animals were not culled from the herd, many would die from starvation?

Hunters provide a service and an economic resource to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Without hunters, professional hunters would have to be hired to kill and cull many species.

Hunters’ permits help provide a source of revenue to control the animal population, which left to its own devices would result in a biological disaster.

The nonhunting public doesn’t have to hunt, and it doesn’t have to understand. Those people don’t have to eat meat. But some people don’t share those views, and have not gotten so far away from the role of being at the top of the food chain.

Again, if hunters didn’t hunt, many animals would die of starvation due to overpopulation. Spread the word!

When nonhunters buy a piece of meat, any type of meat, in a grocery store, they may not have killed the animal, but they contributed to the animal’s death.

If that is “unnatural,” it’s also inescapable.

Phillip Webber Sr., Sabattus