THE ISSUE: A news story on an 11-year-old boy’s bagging of a half-ton wild boar.

Your story on an 11-year-old boy who hunted down a 1,051 pound wild boar (“The Biggest Pig Ever,” May 26 ) is not only not newsworthy, it certainly doesn’t belong on the cover of any legitimate newspaper.

An 11-year-old boy hunting down an innocent animal with a .50-caliber revolver is not a fair fight. If the animal being hunted would have the ability to use a revolver to defend itself, then it would be a fair sport.

To make this a cover story, and have New York’s children believe that killing innocent animals is a sport, is poor reporting on your part.
Rory Paull
Manhattan

******

We have the right and the freedom to hunt. But killing that unusual animal is cruel and unconscionable. The 11-year-old and his father sound sadistic as they “try to figure out what to do with the sausage.”

This isn’t a matter of law but a matter of having a heart which the two seem to be lacking.
Julia Rayman
Secaucus, N.J.

******

What a terrible, terrible shame for such a wonderful creature to have suffered such a degrading fate!

And what on earth is an 11-year-old boy doing with a Smith & Wesson? I’m sure no one will look at this as an achievement for he could have hardly missed hitting a beast of such size. It also says a lot about parenthood!
Bill Pugsley
Huntington