RUBBISH TO SAY MCGRATH SHOULD NOT BE HUNTING

I READ with great disappointment Trevor Prescott’s letter ( GA 26/2) in which he talks about Glenn McGrath and big game hunting.

Mr Prescott stated that McGrath had “previously stood head and shoulder above many of his sporting peers, as a decent, caring man with an impeccable sense of humanity, a wonderful role model”.

Well, Mr Prescott, guess what? He still is.

What’s changed? Because he has a pastime that you don’t agree with?

Mr Prescott writes that “big game hunting is to be deplored”, that it “glorifies guns and killing”, is “killing for killing’s sake” and that killing is “the way to demonstrate manhood”. What a load of rubbish.

What has hunting got to do with demonstrating manhood? Why does my attractive blonde wife hunt? People hunt because they enjoy it. They also utilise the meat and anything else they can from the animal.

Mr Prescott, are you a vegan? Do you eat meat? Do you fish? Do you wear leather?

If you aren’t a vegan and answered yes, you have no right to criticise hunters.

You say hunting elephants “does bring some income to the local community, and perhaps some meat may be give to the people and maybe elephants need to be controlled”.

Elephant hunting brings the vast majority of income. Most, if not all, the meat is given to the (sometimes starving) locals. And in regards to controlling elephant numbers, in Zimbabwe alone there is an excess of 80,000 that need to be controlled. And lastly, Mr Prescott states that hunting in Australia “should be done in a humane way, not gun-wielding amateurs who are out for a thrill kill”.

Hunting has nothing to do with “thrill killing”. Hunters put a lot of time, money, skill in something that ultimately benefits our country.

I think that the real question you should be asking yourself, Mr Prescott, isn’t “Why did Glenn Mc- Grath hunt an elephant?”. The question should be “Who are you to say he can’t?” Russell Dempsey, Highton