To the editor:

Opening up the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex to hunting would be detrimental to animals, residents, and the environment.

No matter who they’re aiming for, hunters often hit unintended targets — including other wild animals, animal companions, and humans—with their bullets and arrows. 

When hunters use lead bullets, most of which fragment into hundreds of tiny pieces, the animal’s body is riddled with lead. Other animals who eat the remainders that hunters leave behind frequently suffer from lead poisoning. It was lead poisoning from carcasses of shot animals that drove California condors to the brink of extinction before decades of determined recovery efforts and a ban on lead ammunition helped them start to rebound. And lead contaminates soil and groundwater.

Wild animals are generally only considered to be “overpopulated” when humans continue to encroach on their dwindling habitats, further diminishing their food supplies. The least we can do is not to kill them simply for existing.

Michelle Kretzer

The PETA Foundation