To the Editor,

History buffs will recall that President Teddy Roosevelt, after being unable to locate a wild bear to shoot during a hunting trip, refused to shoot an injured bear his assistants had tied to a tree.  That was the genesis of "Teddy's Bear," or the teddy bear that remains so popular today.

The DEM's release of farm-raised pheasants for "hunters" to shoot, as reported last week in the Providence Journal, is as disgusting as Roosevelt's assistants tying an injured bear to a tree.  The DEM "gently" places the virtually tame pheasants in the middle of a field, their heads tucked under their wings so they remain motionless through the night, and leave them there for so-called hunters to frighten into flight the next morning for easy killing.

 I grew up among hunters and this kind of easy thrill killing is not hunting.  I am ashamed of our DEM for promoting this unsportsmanlike slaughter.  Why not just leave the pheasants in their cages and have the "hunters" shoot them there?

I'm equally ashamed of the Rhode Islanders who take part in this shameful exercise of assassination that is so egregiously mischaracterized as hunting. 

 Anyone who takes advantage of this barbaric "sitting duck" program can't possibly call themselves hunters. 

Lonnie Barham

Warwick