After reading Adam Kapp's column, "When the sporting becomes a question of life," I realized how uninformed some people are about why many Pennsylvanians hunt.

Yes, indeed, one of the reasons that we participate in hunting is to control the wildlife herd sizes. Millions of dollars each year are spent in insurance claims over automobile accidents with deer. Nearly 7,000 Americans are killed each year as a result of these accidents.

Adam claims that we "overdeveloped their habitat in the first place," but are you aware that the game commission is constantly purchasing lands so they can't be developed but used as wildlife habitat and to slow the urban sprawl. Wildlife also contributes to nearly $70 million of crop damage each year to Pennsylvania's farmers. This is one reason that your organic produce is so expensive. The control of the deer herd also stops the spread of Lyme disease, one of the fastest growing infectious diseases.

There are other reasons that I hunt as well. Hunting has taught me respect for life and firearms. It has also taught me how to conserve and protect the outdoors. Unlike others in this world, I know when that bullet leaves the end of my gun that it cannot come back and the decision I made to pull the trigger must be the right one.

I took Monday off from school to sit in the woods all day. I didn't harvest that big buck or even a doe, but I'm always very thankful every time that I have the opportunity to go hunting.

If on that trip to the great outdoors I'm successful in harvesting one the world's greatest creatures, I just thank the Lord I had that opportunity.

By the way, I have a 10-point mounted over my fireplace, and I like my deer steaks done medium rare.