To the editor:
I was moved to read and hear people’s reactions to the front page photo of the poor moose, as he lay in the street after being hit. My heart broke when I saw the picture. I only wish someone was comforting him, as he lay there, as we’d do any human animal after they’d been struck. I also wish he’d been euthanized by a veterinarian, rather than shot. The picture I saw did not indicate a struggling animal, only a severely injured animal whose hind end appeared to be crushed. I hope his family is OK.
I’m not sure how I feel about the front page coverage.
I saw an animal rights cartoon once,  depicting a butcher with a bloody knife in his hand, standing in front of pigs hanging upside down after having their throats slashed. The caption, by Albert Schweitzer read, “Think occasionally, of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” (http://www.veganpeace.com/famous_quotes/Quotes/SchweitzerAlbert.htm)
I take this opportunity to ask that we not hide our eyes, more importantly, our hearts, from the suffering of animals. The moose lying there touched deeply, the hearts of many. My Facebook page (feel free to visit) has many photos and videos of animal suffering happening every day, all around the world, animals trapped in  our practices of agriculture, fashion, research, and other economic interests that use animals.
Perhaps having that sad front page photo that moved so many, can be a catalyst for our community to have conversations in schools, churches, wherever social issues are discussed, on human interaction with nonhumans. As children, we have an affinity for animals, which is why it is so devastating that we are taught to unlearn that which comes so naturally, love of animals.
Henry Beston, The Outermost House says: “We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
I remember the song we sang when I was with a church choir (even though I’m proudly Jewish) after the collection plate was returned;” Praise Gd from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here, below.” Let our Dominion become kind stewardship, healing partnerships, rather then predatory competition.
In Kindness,
Laura Slitt
Bartlett

To the editor:
I found Tuesday's front page photo of the critically injured moose in North Conway village both disturbing and discouraging. Disturbing because the animal was doomed to be destroyed and rather than show compassion and sensitivity, the photo captured the animal's last moments of life as it lay facing death, frightened, injured and with no escape or recourse.
For those of us who focus on saving the lives of animals, both wild and otherwise, could we please get more of those stories in print?
Cathie Gregg
Madison

To the editor:
It is stunning to me that someone could hit a moose in broad daylight on Route 16 in North Conway Village. Were they blind? The Kanc or Bear Notch Road at dusk maybe, but the village? With a 35 mile per hour speed limit?  Publishing the picture in the paper was also the height of poor taste and sensationalism. Very sad.
 Maureen Ferguson
Bartlett

To the editor:
 I am writing to express my disgust with The Conway Daily Sun’s decision to put a picture of a moose after it had collided with a car on Route 16 on the front page of its Tuesday’s edition.
I understand that it is a newspaper’s job to report the news — good and bad.  I also understand the importance of reminding drivers and pedestrians to be aware of their environment especially now that the nicer weather is upon us, and we are all emerging from our winter hibernation. However, a photograph of a wounded and helpless animal lying in the road, unable to get up and which ultimately had to be euthanized, does not belong on the front page. Surely you could have reported the same story using a different photo (if you really needed to use one at all) and by putting it elsewhere in the paper?
My heart sank and I felt sick when I saw that photograph and wonder how many children saw it and how they must have felt.
I know that negativity sells, but your paper is free … so what’s your excuse?
Suzanne Connifey
North Conway