Somewhere, in one of Pinehurst's gated sanctuaries, there is a home decorated with the bodies of dead animals, the innocent victims of "canned hunting." In a canned hunt the so-called hunter shoots an animal that has been caged or confined to a fenced enclosure.

The canned hunts are held on animal farms where the shooter fires from an elevated platform or from behind a fence, thus avoiding any possibility of being hurt by a wounded animal. If an animal refuses to leave its cage, it is shot in the cage.

The unfortunate animals may include giraffes, lions, gazelles, baboons, chimpanzees, endangered leopards, tigers and even polar bears. The menu offered by the hunt operators is endless.

Animal farms are frequently owned by foreign corporations whose owners are exempt from U.S. law. Animals are smuggled in across the Mexican border or bought from zoos or circuses. Some shooters are sadistic societal misfits who enjoy watching animals suffer and die.

In one instance, documented by the SPCA, a lioness refused to leave her cubs in order to go to a location for food where she could be shot. Employees of the ranch forced her away from the cubs, using cattle prods, and then placed the cubs in a cage which they moved to the shooting area. When the lioness went to her cubs she was killed. The "hunters" then had their picture taken with the body, ignoring the cries of the cubs.

Canned hunting is on a level with dog fighting, if not worse. It is inhumane, cruel, revolting and cowardly. Federal legislation to put animal farms out of business is badly needed. The shooters and animal farm operators should be prosecuted under animal abuse laws.

Earle D. Hightower

Pinehurst