I hope that Robert Hitt Neill’s column on Jan. 24 (Tough chore to tangle with a flaming polecat) was just a sick joke, but I fear it was just sick. What’s informative or entertaining about needlessly spraying an animal with lighter fluid with the intention of setting it on fire?

Even if the skunk had to be killed (which it did not), setting a live animal on fire is probably the most painful and barbaric way to do it. No true sportsman or any human being with the slightest respect for God’s creatures, would ever approve.

What if I wrote a column describing how I purposely swerved my car to hit a raccoon, but only injured it? Then I joked that if you saw a raccoon dragging itself along the road, “Well, now you know.” How would that be any different?

As an ex-newspaper reporter, I defend the right of newspapers to print almost anything, including folksy columns about country life. However, this column was merely an exhibition of cruelty and had no place in any newspaper.

Richard Smith

Vicksburg