I will not attend the Bangor State Fair this year.

The celebration of our Yankee heritage should not include “gator wrestling” and tigers jumping through hoops.

Studies of these creatures in the wild show that they nurture their young and display very humane emotions. They are not on this earth for our amusement.

In the television advertisement for the Swamp Master, he describes the fear in the eyes of the “gators” before he manhandles them for our “entertainment.” Tigers are an endangered species that deserve preservation – not exploitation.

Three times a day these creatures will have to perform for, I hope, a very small audience. Between acts and traveling around the county, they live in cages with no connection to their natural environment.

Let’s call these animal acts what, in reality, they are: animal cruelty – pure and simple.

Jan Beckett

Milford