What is wrong with this photo?

To the editor:

In the March 24 issue of this newspaper there was an article by Greg Johnson headlined “Out and About: Families find fun, common ground at Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show.” Underneath is a photo of a young boy and perhaps his father or a friend. Nine-year old Norman Godfrey is taking aim at a video set up at the 2013 Outdoorsman Hunter Information and Training booth. There, before him, on the big screen, is a moose crossing the highway. The large male is obviously a trophy specimen — he has a full rack.

Reporter Greg Johnson notes while most enjoy the feeling of scoring a good hit on a moose or caribou, 9-year old Godfrey confessed that he was trying to miss.

“I like moose” he said, adding that while at the simulator, “I try aiming for not the moose, but it always gets in the way.”

What’s wrong with this picture? Well, several things. The first is that a 9-year-old who isn’t all that gung-ho on shooting moose is being encouraged to do so. This seems to me to be coercion rather than hunter safety.

Secondly, the statement “it always gets in the way” is akin to the line in the song about the Titanic, “that an iceberg hit the ship.” One could easily deduce that as with the Titanic, that nature is putting something dangerous in our path. This does not bode well for our relations with our local animals. Instead, it infers that we as Alaskans would, if given the option, rather shoot moose than create migratory pathways for them. Maybe this is what Godfrey would prefer doing with his time.

Thirdly, the moose in the simulator is crossing the highway. Isn’t shooting animals on the road illegal? Wouldn’t it be better to have an image of a moose in the woods on the simulator? And so why run this photo in the paper?

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, this photo is in poor taste given that most recently, 26 adults and children died in a mass shooting. How quickly, it seems, we forget.

Alys Culhane

Palmer