Letters to the editor July 15, 2008

Who will clean San Francisco mess?

To the Editor:

I would like to respond to the article in the Banner Graphic on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 about the city of San Francisco renaming their sewage treatment plant "George W. Bush Sewage Plant," as proposed by Mr. Brian McConnell and his cohorts.

I really think that his plan is pretty good, but for different reasons.

First of all, a sewage plant is built to clean up the sewage of its own citizens, of whom Mr. McConnell is one, and while they rename their sewage plant, it seems appropriate to rename their city Sodom and Gomorrah (19th chapter of Genesis).

Although President Bush is good at cleaning up sewage messes (i.e. 9/11/01, Saddam Hussein and Oil for Food by the U.N.), I am afraid that the sewage mess in San Francisco (Sodom) is too big for even him, as our Lord has reserved that sewage mess for Himself (St. Luke the 17th chapter, verses 28-30).

Neil Green

Bainbridge

County cannot afford to lose animal shelter

To the Editor:

"… this is the time for thinking/Quite revolutionary thoughts/about bats, dinosaurs and other creatures of weird and wonderful sorts." -- Ann Cotrell Free, "No Room Save the Heart"

One of thing each of us can do to help our local Humane Society and our animal friends now is to make certain our own animals companions have been spayed and neutered. Encourage others to do the same.

Another is to adopt. The number of homeless animals in our community is more than one can imagine.

According to 2006 statistics, approximately 27 million dogs and cats wind up in animal shelters each year in the United States.

If you have one animal, consider adopting a second.

They can chew on each other instead of the furniture!

If you are a "cat person," rescue a catlike dog such as a Basenji. And if you are a "dog person," open your heart and home to a couple of cats.

But that's not enough. There are too many homeless creatures.

So do not breed or buy. How did we ever come to see our animal friends as commodities to be bought and sold like slaves anyway?

Despite the cruelties of pet over-population, pet shop suppliers and other people keep breeding even more animals.

Even "just one litter" creates suffering because every home found for the new puppies or kittens is a home taken away from an animal in a shelter.

Boycott pet stores that sell animals. Many of the kittens and pups sold in pet stores come from puppy farms where female mother dogs are confined, only to breed, and each litter, one after another, are taken away at an unnatural age to be packed into crates and shipped hundred of miles to the mall. Many high bred show dogs are bred by approved kennel club members for the shape of their noses of the color of their coats, and live unsocialized and separate lives hoarded in kennels, tasting freedom only when the most recent dog show comes around.

They too are often separated from their mothers after only a few days.

That is one reason perhaps mutts do not have as many behavioral and health problems as purebreds, and are, of course, just as lovable as a dog with the perfect curve of a tail.

And, I dare you to try this experiment with me for the next two weeks in honor of all the animals in this community who have been entrusted to our care. Try speaking to each animal you meet during the day.

Talk to the birds, dogs and cats; the horses, the cows and pigs and chickens and sheep as if they too were complex and intelligent beings, capable of feelings with emotional attachments the same as you and me.

Hold on to the belief, even if it's just pretending for two weeks, that we are all equal, though very different, creatures of the highest creator.

Then listen.

Animals can be such great teachers and friends. Ask them what changes our community needs to make in order to save and improve our Humane Society.

"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys."

-- Chief Dan George

Killing the unwanted domesticated animals we have created is not an option for most of us anymore. Of those 27 million dogs and cats who find their way into an animal shelter, 20 million never find homes.

Isn't it time we did something revolutionary here in Putnam County?

How can we NOT afford to have a Humane Society?

Marian Patience Harvey

Roachdale