THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506010018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The great leader! The brave hunter! The swine (according to Webster, ``a contemptible person'')!
H. Kirby Burch, Virginia director of conservation and recreation, was, according to a newspaper report, carrying his own gun in False Cape State Park in hopes of bagging a big pig for a state-sponsored barbecue for the National Guard.
Just who does he think he is?
State personnel rules bar employees from carrying firearms on state time. This allegedly was a planned kill. He was headed for a meeting with other state-park officials. He was on state time. He failed to have the courtesy to inform others in the caravan of his intent.
Hunting is allowed for one week in the fall - not in spring when the young are born. Two animals were killed on a public road. How can it possibly be said that Burch has violated no rules governing wildlife?
As head of state parks, a position of trust and responsibility for all Virginians, Burch more than any other should obey the letter and the intent of the law and not look for excuses to get around the law for his own benefit. But he is a trigger-happy citizen and should be treated as such. He should be fined and removed from a job about which he obviously knows little and cares less.
A hunter has written, ``It is a hunter's duty to treat his prey with respect and not to permit unneeded suffering.'' Not so Burch. First he killed the young pig. Then he shot and wounded the sow, leaving her lying beside the road to suffer her loss and her pain. He was saving his last bullet to protect himself from possible attack by an animal that doesn't attack humans. Ye gods!
ELIZABETH SILLS
Virginia Beach, May 24, 1995 by CNB