Letters To The Editor

Sat., Dec. 7, 1996

PEOPLE AND ANIMALS

Bird’s return saved Thanksgiving

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, during the icy, snowy storm, my parents Bud and Peggy Gates, who are in their 70s, discovered their beloved yellow parakeet, Peppy, was missing. He had apparently gotten outside.

They immediately called The Spokesman-Review and placed an ad. I thought how fruitless it was, for how could a tiny tropical bird survive a bitter storm through the night until the paper came out the next day? They continued to search, to no avail.

The following morning, I called my mother. She cried as she described how quiet the house was without Peppy. I knew Thanksgiving would be sad for our entire family because when our parents are sad, we all are.

At 12:30 p.m., 26 hours after Peppy’s departure, my dad received a call. Roy Penna, who was about 10 blocks away, had seen a yellow parakeet in his feeder for wild birds and had found the ad in the paper.

“Peppy lives!” my dad shouted to my mom. My parents and some family members rushed to Penna’s. After 30 minutes, they sighted Peppy a block away. He was perched in an 80-foot tree in the yard of Mike Campbell, who then also joined the SWAT team.

The frightened, cold bird kept flying from treetop to treetop, but after two hours was finally coaxed down to his familiar cage. It was a miracle! He had survived 30 hours in treacherous weather.

The homecoming of the tiniest member of the Gates family made this a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our thanks to The Spokesman-Review, the Pennas and the Campbells for their help. Danna Beal Spokane

Fur foes fight inhumane industry

Again, the news media have presented a one-sided view of ranching (“Fur foes terrorize pelt farms,” Dec. 1). Mink growers are portrayed as hard-working business people fighting to protect their interests from “radical vegetarian terrorists.”

Not once did the article mention why the Animal Liberation Front is resorting to controversial tactics to draw attention to the plight of fur-bearing animals.

We’re all aware of the cruelty behind trapping, but how many people know the truth about fur ranching? The fur industry spends millions yearly to glamorize its product, while masking the real price of ranched fur - pain, agony and mutilation of millions of fur-bearing animals.

Captive minks spend their short lives crowded into small, filthy cages. They suffer from poor diet, inadequate water, contagious diseases, parasites, exposure and severe stress. Selective breeding causes physical and behavioral deformities.

Because the ranchers’ primary interests are pelts and profit, the animals are killed by cheap yet agonizing methods - anal electrocution, poisoning, gassing, neck breaking and suffocation. Those that don’t die outright are skinned anyway. Like animals raised for food, animals raised for their fur receive no protection under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of the animal rights movement need only look to the fur trade for proof. Since anti-fur campaigns started, the billion-dollar fur industry has shrunk to a mere shadow of itself.

Please consider the true horrors of fur ranching before you buy fur. Cruelty is one fashion statement we can do without. Anne Groeschel Spokane

Fur fashions not worth the pain

Furriers are having a much harder time this year. Increasing numbers of consumers are turning their backs on fur, as they become aware of the horrendous suffering and cruelty involved in the trade.

The real price of fur must be measured in deaths, not dollars. One mink coat requires the killing of at least 55 wild minks or 35 ranch minks. A sable coat requires the killing of 40 sables and 14 otters die to make an otter coat.

The creation of every fur coat is a product of immense pain and suffering. Animals killed for fur are obtained by trapping or from fur ranches. Animals caught in leg-hold traps suffer a slow, excruciating death. Those that don’t chew off their own leg, freeze or bleed to death by the time the trapper returns are strangled or bludgeoned. These traps also victimize endangered species, domestic pets and children.

Fur ranching, no more humane, is characterized by barren cages, isolation and environmental deprivation so severe the animals often go insane.

Top designers like Gianni Versace and Calvin Klein are excluding furs from their collections. Supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer refuse to model fur. Retailers including Lord & Taylor and Harrod’s of London no longer carry fur. Fur is, indeed, a dead investment. Don’t be fooled: there’s nothing fashionable or humane about cruelty and pain. Lynn Schwartz Greenacres

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Watch your back, voters

Hang on, folks. Now that President Clinton has been re-elected, here come the increased fees for parks and more expensive EPA emissions tests. And we haven’t heard from Hillary or Vice President Al Gore yet.

So much for lower taxes and less government. Lewis W. Johnson Spokane

Face it, the best man won

Lee Corrigan is honest, albeit wrongheaded (“Polls have earned my disaffection” Letters Nov. 20). But is he so certain that the Democrats joined the Republicans? Seems to me Republicans, with their own approach to big government, joined the Democrats. But that comes from having read, rather than ignoring, available news sources.

And if Chris Stebbins is disappointed that Clinton got elected (“Clinton win hardly a landslide” Nov. 20), he should be more disappointed that:

Fewer than half of voters voted.

Bob Dole resorted to character assassination because he didn’t have anything to say.

Republicans abandoned Dole because they were trying to save their own incumbencies - along with a Republican Congress.

Clinton’s performance office satisfied more voters than Dole’s, by comparison.

Character mattered, only to Republicans, only in an election year. Politics governs scandals.

Even the Republican majority in Congress is now making peace noises with the man Republicans love to hate. When will those people, who were bitterly disappointed at Dole’s loss, do the same? Joan E. Harman Coeur d’Alene

Another costly perk for Ranchers

The Associated Press tells it as a somewhat humorous story, but there’s a lot buried in the Nov. 28 report of a “coyote killer’s” airplane caught in Air Force gunnery practice in southwestern Idaho.

The plane was leased by the government and carried a government employee of an “agency which takes care of predators for ranchers with livestock on public lands.”

When ranchers were fighting an increase in grazing fees on federal lands, they resisted comparisons of federal lease fees with fees for private grazing lands. On federal lands, they said, they had to build their own fences and contend with problems that landlords on private property would take care of for them.

Now we learn that in addition to bargain basement grazing fees, these folks have their own federal agency to help protect their herds. How many private landlords provide that kind of service as a no-cost extra?

That same issue of the Review carries a story about President Clinton’s “gloomy prospects for success” in his efforts to reduce cutbacks in food stamps and other welfare programs.

It’s been obvious for many years that Congress will happily give welfare to those businesses and corporations that can afford to lobby for it. But, given Congress’ ultra-stingy approach to welfare for the poor, it would be nice to see it start chopping at a few of the benefits for the rich.

I won’t complain if Congress starts by whacking the Animal Damage Control agency. Ed Reynolds Spokane

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