Crow Hunt 2005 is scheduled for February 11-13. I'm sure that the "Colonel Sanders" of crows, Tom Lennox, would like to thank the

"Crow Queen," Rita Sarnicola, for protesting the event. Her squawks and caws have gotten the attention of hundreds of hunters throughout the country.

The crow is best known for being a reservoir of the deadly West Nile disease and according to wildlifedamagecontrol.com, the West Nile virus was first spotted in this country in a sick crow.

These black birds can tear a farmer's fields to shreds, so Lennox and his crew will be helping to clear them out. Maybe the Crow Queen and her court would like to re-seed and replant those crops for our local farmers who work so hard to support their families.

Mankind has been given dominion over the animal kingdom and we should know when a potential human health hazard exists. Then we must be proactive and do something about it before that potential becomes a reality. Do you think that droppings from 60,000 crows in a small city is clean?

Look at the areas where our children play. And what about our soil and water supply: they both run the risk of becoming contaminated.

The animal activists just don't want to deal with these practicalities. Their sense of Human Life vs. Animal Life is completely out of synch with reality. They try to make the rest of us look like we hate animals when we don't. We love animals, but we realize that animals and humans are not equal; people come first. We just want to take prudent steps to safeguard our health from any unnecessary risks and to protect our quality of life.

Are the PETA people trying to tell us that they've never swatted a fly or stepped on an ant, or killed a mosquito? I don't think so. It's our responsibility to attempt to control our environment; including animals.

Hunters add thousands of dollars to the local economy through licensing fees and supplies purchases. We really should be thanking these sportsmen for providing this valuable service, absolutely free! Hunters donate venison, turkeys and other game to local food banks and churches.

Why do you think this is getting so much national attention? Sixty thousand of any kind of critter in our city would get noticed at the national level ... because it's CRAZY!! Still, pro-crow people have called this hunt unnecessary violence against animals.

But where was their outrage when their fellow activists spray-painted city hall with their slogans and defaced a city gazebo. This is the destruction of public property but nobody seemed very concerned.

Despite the misguided protests of the few, I think that the upcoming crow hunt is another feather in Tom Lennox's cowboy hat.

Judy Ducayne's column appears Tuesdays in The Citizen. She can be reached at sacredheart6005@hotmail.com