To the Editor: As a natural history enthusiast, I

To the Editor:

As a natural history enthusiast, I made the mistake of tuning in to the Jan. 25 CBS TV special, “The World’s Most Dangerous Animals.” When CBS went to Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for comment near the end of this “nature documentary,” I realized I’d been had. .

In the tradition begun with its infamous “Guns of Autumn” smear several years ago, CBS turned on the antihunting propaganda, ending the show by designating man the “World’s Most Dangerous Animal.” Naturally, Ingrid agreed, aided and abetted by graphic footage of “hunters” killing “game” in non fair chase situations obviously intended to elicit an emotional response from viewers (but situations in which true sportsmen would not participate).

CBS has displayed its blatant antihunting bias for years, but this use of a PETA spokesman (and, conversely, the use of CBS by PETA) by a network already diminished and shamed by recent ethical lapses in its war on tobacco companies defies belief. It failed to point out that, in addition to hunting, Ms. Newkirk and PETA also oppose medical experimentation on animals, circus animal acts, fishing, eating meat, using animal parts for belts, shoes or other apparel, the dairy industry, Thanksgiving Turkeys and the poultry/egg industries, wearing furs, mouse traps and rat poison, horse drawn carriages, horse racing, dog racing, riding stables, fox hunts, and any other “exploitation” of animals by people. Instead, Ms. Newkirk was presented as if she were an expert whose ' opinions were rooted in scientific fact, rather than a zealot pursuing PETA’s radical agenda.

In their ongoing battle to turn an increasingly urbanized society of nonhunters into non-tolerant anti-hunters, this animals first, people last bunch of fanatics routinely portrays the typical