I have been following the bow-hunting debate with increasing interest over the past few weeks. I am a small c Conservative, right-wing gun owner and never considered myself an animal activist. I did a little research on bow hunting and it proved to be a real wake-up call.

It became apparent that it is a very inefficient way to hunt and has no upside or any place in modern society. I own bows but only use them for target practice with my grandson. Never would I or any hunter I know use a bow for hunting.

There are many irrelevant issues raised by pro-bow hunters (crop damage, vehicles hitting deer, need for culls, deer die and suffer in the wild anyway, bows have been used for thousands of years, it is a "real" sport, etc.), none of which address the real issue -- cruelty. If deer must be killed, then please do it humanely. I have seen pictures of deer walking around with arrows in them and have read many articles relating the suffering other animals go through when impaled with an arrow. It simply is not necessary.