John Schandelmeier's Outdoors article "Let 4-year-old girl learn to trap? You bet" (Nov. 20) was interesting as an insight into how some people think.
His 4-year-old wants a new hat and mittens so it automatically follows you should go out and kill something with fur? He attributes some benefits to this activity. "It gets you out of the house." I guess such activities as hiking or outdoor photography which don't require killing are disregarded. "It teaches economics." How about a hot cocoa/baked goods stand, picking up trash, shoveling snow? Again, no killing.
Because feedlot animals are treated in a cruel fashion, that makes trapping "pretty benign?" Animals kill to eat for survival. How does setting traps to kill for fur translate into "the way of the woods?"
He attributes to running a trapline "learning the proper care and conservation of the natural world around her." My idea of conservation is, live and let live. I will get my new hat and mittens from a store.
— Della Dempsey
Wasilla