The Patriot News in Harrisburg, Pa., (Newhouse, 100,000 daily) stirred up some reaction Tuesday morning with their photo of a man and his grandaughters, one of whom is holding a severed deer leg. In a front-page story Wednesday, the paper wrote:

The newspaper received about 50 calls and e-mails protesting the photo, and numerous readers said they had friends or co-workers who felt the same way.

"Absolutely disgusting" was how Lester Eshelman, 71, of Upper Allen Twp., described the photograph. "It is just no wonder that the world today has become so insensitive to pain and suffering."

"My family and I were completely repulsed," e-mailed Patricia Kell of New Cumberland. "How sad for those children and for everyone else who picked the paper up this morning and saw the photo."

Theodore Lupey of Middle Paxton Twp., the grandfather in the photo, couldn't believe those reactions. Lupey, 66, grew up on a farm. He has butchered deer, pigs and other animals most of his life.

"I was raised on deer meat. My wife calls them 'modern people,' these people who go to supermarkets, because they don't know what goes on on a farm," he said.

The response seems to indicate how divided Americans are about hunting, said Patriot-News Executive Editor David Newhouse.

"I doubt that many of the people who called were vegetarian, yet there was something about seeing this image of an age-old practice -- killing and slaughtering an animal for meat -- that disgusted many readers," Newhouse said. "We didn't mean to offend, but one role of our newspaper is to reflect the community. And this photo certainly brought out strong opinion on both sides."

>Deer photo draws ire from readers [The Patriot News]
>News photo provokes more squeamishness [VisualEditors.com]