At one time, 60 million bison roamed the American West. By 1893 there were 300 left. Grizzlies were completely exterminated throughout most of the West by the late 1880s as well. To this day, few places on Earth contain enough wild land to support this ultimate North American predator. Thankfully, Alaska is still one such place and I feel privileged to live here as a result.

I felt physically ill when I read about someone indiscriminately shooting a sow with two dependent cubs in the heart of the eagle preserve and leaving the corpse to rot.

Dad taught me to shoot before I hit grade school, and as a lifelong hunter, you won’t get far preaching to me about gun control. Nor, however, will you get far trying to convince me that owning a gun gives anyone the right to kill indiscriminately.

Wild Alaska is remarkable and rare; natural salmon runs, game still abundant enough so that we can all hunt legally if we like, and peak predators like wolves and bears living off the same fish runs that we all enjoy.

The day that a sow with cubs, in the heart of the eagle preserve, can’t stroll along the banks teaching her cubs to fish without being sniped at by some thoughtless coward, is the day I get pissed off enough to see red.

I’ve collected a fund of $300 for information leading to the prosecution of whoever committed this crime and I welcome additional pledges to increase this reward.

Ned Rozbicki