Bigfoot

Re “Science Is Hot on Heels of Bigfoot Legend,” Jan. 21:

I was quite dismayed to see an article about the Bigfoot legend on your front page. “News” such as that is only appropriate in periodicals that one reads while waiting in line at the supermarket. Is it obvious only to me that this hoax is sustained by merchants in small Northwestern towns who want to draw in gullible tourists?

You do readers a grave disservice by not including any strong arguments against the myth. Consider this: In order to achieve the genetic diversity necessary to maintain a large enough breeding population to perpetuate a species, there must be a sizable number of individuals in that population. That is, too many not to be easily discovered. There have never been found any skeletons, hair samples or droppings that testing has shown to be from an undiscovered “apelike” species. Will you write another story when this latest hair sample is discovered through testing to be moose or bear? I doubt it. That wouldn’t be news.

AL AXELBAND

Santa Barbara