To the editor:
Sure, the Bass Pro Shops museum likes to tell everyone all the good things that hunters have done for wild animals. But, I would wager they neglected to mention all the terrible things they have done to wild animals.
That sort of information would not be good for their billion dollar business. Hunters wiped out the populations of many native animals around the country, nearly to the point of no return. And now they credit themselves with bringing some of it back. Hunting by white European settlers did not do the wildlife any favors.
The introduction of firearms and shotguns, and steel and poison traps did not help the wildlife. And the people who continue to make their living from hunting are not doing as much good as they would like us to believe. Most of Indiana lands are privately owned. This almost completely subverts any perceived benefit of conservation.
Indiana has enough environmental problems without promoting these relics of our past. The relatively small amount of funding that hunters donate (by law) to conservation in Indiana may occasionally get used to reconstruct areas of habitat, but the actual hunting itself is seldom required.
Adam Cooper
Greenfield
