Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE AND ANIMALS

AVAR advances humane alternatives

In response to the Feb. 24 article, “Shelter faces tough choice,” Cherie Graves (Letters, March 3) made several inaccurate statements about our organization, the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR).

AVAR only allows veterinarians, veterinary medical students or veterinary medical technicians as members. AVAR is vitally concerned with how veterinarians are trained, hence our interest in the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine-Kootenai Humane Society issue.

We believe veterinary training need not and should not involve purposeful killing in order to accomplish its goals. WSU has been a leader in this arena, being one of the first schools in this country to develop an educationally sound alternative program for students who choose not to kill in order to learn. They have shown that such alternatives result in students being equally competent to those students who take the “traditional” track.

Rather than “selling” cats and dogs that will be killed in the traditional program, we urge Kootenai Humane Society to work with WSU to expand the alternative track, making it the standard. The society should insist that WSU develop the same kind of relationship already present between WSU and its local shelter.

WSU surgery students neuter or spay animals that are returned and have a considerably higher adoption rate than otherwise. The spay procedure in particular offers students an exceptional surgical training experience. Students also get to see their patients live and be adopted rather than killed. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D., president Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, Davis, Calif.

Somehow, ‘Humane’ no longer fits

If the Kootenai County Humane Society starts selling animals to Washington State University, can it still call itself a humane society? Won’t it have to change its name to Kootenai County Surplus Animal Clearinghouse?

Maybe society people can travel around neighborhoods, picking up family pets and hauling them off to Pullman. They could probably dispense with the chore of adopting-out pets to loving homes. Those 30 pieces of silver per dog from WSU will come in handy to replace contributions that will likely dry up.

Can the society really be considered a charitable organization while profiting from the wholesale distribution of homeless animals?

Where is Duane Hagadone when we need him? If the society is so financially destitute it is considering pound seizure, maybe this is a public-private sector project to unite behind. Make the Humane Society a world-class shelter to make Kootenai County proud.

Promote spaying/neutering to eliminate the surplus animal population. There has to be a solution that does not involve pound seizure. Mike Toutant Coeur d’Alene

Keep shelter a safe haven

Animal shelters should not have to face any choice at all as to sending animals away for research. Too many people, myself included, will not take any animals to a shelter that does this.

A shelter means “a refuge or haven,” so let’s keep it that way. Donna Warner Colbert

Think before getting a pet

My 10- and 12-year-old daughters go to the Humane Society every week to walk or pet the dogs there. We already have pets so we cannot get any more, but my girls want to go just to let the dogs know they care.

It’s very difficult to explain to my kids why all those cute dogs have been dropped off there when the papers are filled out, over and over, that the “dog needs more room” or the “owner doesn’t have enough time” to spend with the pet.

Think about it before you decide to get a dog. All puppies are cute, but they all grow into dogs that require attention. Just like deciding to have a child - when it gets tough, would you decide to put your son or daughter in an orphanage?

Those dogs and cats at the Humane Society didn’t choose this. You did, out of sheer ignorance.

Do some research before deciding to get a pet. If you decide to get one, please look for it at the Humane Society first. They need caring owners. If you have a pet, get it spayed or neutered.

If you have any doubt, please take some time to stop at the local Humane Society. And feel free to take along a bag of dog or cat food or cat litter. Debi Moon Spokane

THE MEDIA

Stories unfair to Browne’s Addition

Residents of Browne’s Addition are incensed by the apparent insensitivity of Spokesman-Review staff writer Tom Sowa, who is covering the trial of Joseph Andrews, accused of murdering two people in a parking lot at Third and Ash. Sowa continues to state the murders occurred “in a parked car near Browne’s Addition” in spite of residents’ requests that he not associate Browne’s Addition with a murder that occurred outside of the neighborhood.

Many of our stately homes were converted into apartments in the 1940s and ‘50s. These inexpensive apartments attracted a criminal element in the 1960s and ‘70s. Consequently, the neighborhood received a negative image as having a high crime rate and being a haven for drug users.

This is no longer true. The Browne’s Addition Steering Committee and neighbors have worked hard at improving our neighborhood. We have remodeled many of the older apartments (several have been returned to single-family residences), built a replica of the original Coeur d’Alene Park gazebo along with sport and tennis courts, built bus shelters, improved street lighting, repaired sidewalks, planted trees and have sponsored numerous concerts and festivals in our park.

The crime rate in Browne’s Addition is as low as in other neighborhoods. Residents feel safe. We are proud of our neighborhood.

We ask all in the media to be careful when reporting events. The media can reinforce stereotypes or break them down. I challenge you to promote positive images and truth. Dean Lynch Spokane

Editor’s note: After discussing this matter, editors agreed the reference should say “near Browne’s Addition” because the neighborhood is a known part of town.

Despite publicity, the Net works

I’m always reading negative stories about the Internet and am getting tired of the misconception that the news reports. The average person believes the Internet is totally slow and nonfunctional.

Another story in the March 2 Spokesman-Review, “The Web is tangled,” discussed how Internet users complain of the delays of the info highway. I’ve been using the Internet for over a year and feel it is an excellent source of news, reference and entertainment.

The Internet source I use recently discussed the success rate of getting online with the first attempt. When trying to get on during a prime-time hour (6 p.m. to midnight), my online company boasts a success rate of 87.1 percent. During the entire 24-hour period, it has a success rate of 93.5 percent. Compared to the industry average, which is still very good, the combined online companies have success rates of 79.1 percent during peak periods and a success rate of 86.8 percent during the 24-hour period.

Don’t let the struggles of one company tell the entire story. With a good computer and a solid service, the Internet is a wonderful and functional tool. Kevin M. Waite Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Goal was to advance abstinence

In “Sex survey too intrusive, Harris says” (Feb. 21), the “Crisis Pregnancy Clinic” is noted as a collaborator that would benefit from the results of the survey.

We would like to clarify our role in the development of this survey as there seems to be some discussion among the Spokane Regional Health Board members about its appropriateness.

The Crisis Pregnancy Centers were invited to participate in the drafting of a survey on attitudes, perception and knowledge about sexuality issues among the Spokane County population. We took part to make sure questions about abstinence education and encouragement were included. Our concern has been that programs at the Spokane County Health District have not emphasized abstinence until lawful marriage, as mandated by the AIDS omnibus bill.

At the first meeting, a draft of the survey was passed around that contained no questions pertaining to abstinence. Our presence contributed some balance to the survey that initially seemed to favor “comprehensive” sexuality education which includes birth control. The draft also contained leading questions toward the development of school-based health clinics. We provided input so that those favoring comprehensive abstinence-directive education would have a voice in the survey’s development and in answering the questions.

CPC has no vested interest in the survey. The centers are privately financed and all of our services are free. Paula Cullen and James Fields Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Spokane

Church favors tradition over reality

Cheers for Robin Moody on women becoming Catholic priests (Your Turn, Feb. 15).

The decline in the number of men who have joined the priesthood in the last 15 years has left the Catholic Church in great need of leaders at the altar.

What does it take to be a priest? Knowledge, compassion and a desire to spread the word of God. Why is it that women, who are just as capable of acquiring this knowledge, feeling this compassion and certainly having the desire to spread the word of God, are not allowed to? Tradition. Tradition that was certainly supported by Jesus himself when he chose 12 male apostles.

Given the era in which Jesus walked the Earth, would anyone have taken him seriously if even one of his apostles had been a woman? If John the Baptist had been a female, would she have been permitted to baptize anyone? Women in those days were considered childbearers and the property and servants of men.

Nearly 2,000 years later, childbearing is a choice, women are not considered property and need not serve anyone but themselves. Today, women are astronauts, doctors, teachers, governors, judges and soldiers. In spite of the courage, strength and wisdom women have demonstrated, they are still not allowed to teach the word of God at the altar.

If a society is to function smoothly and flourish, it must change according to the modern demands continuously being placed upon it. Patricia G. Floch Spokane

Students can benefit from Internet use

After reading syndicated columnist Elizabeth Schuett’s reaction to President Clinton’s proposal to provide all our young people with Internet access (“Computers no substitute for learning,” March 1), I felt the issues Schuett raised needed some clarification.

I, too, am an instructor, currently using the Internet (Web pages and chat rooms) with my class as an instructional tool.

Schuett makes an important point about the Internet: it “is not a panacea to the ills of education.” But the Internet is a communication tool, and as such can certainly be used to augment the students’ classroom experience. Just as you cannot throw a library at students and expect them to learn, you also cannot throw Internet access at them and expect them to surf their way to an education.

Instructors’ best use of the Internet is as a tool to better accomplish their pedagogical goals, not as a substitute teacher.

Free access to information, especially in education, is the key to maintaining our freedoms. The Internet embodies the most diverse sources of information available today. We need to teach our young people how to use this resource critically and responsibly.

Schuett’s overgeneralizations and stereotyping are attempts to slough off an honest exploration of the issue. Klint Hull, English instructor Eastern Washington University, Cheney

Pro-lifers not the Nazi-like ones

I support the pro-life view of Pastor Henshaw and his group at Roger’s High School. I also support freedom of speech.

A quote from your article implied a parallel between pro-lifers and Aryan Nations. Quite the opposite is so.

Since Roe vs. Wade, there have been about six times more babies aborted than there were Jews murdered by Hitler. Planned Parenthood has racist, eugenic origins. It’s founder, Margaret Sanger, wrote an article in 1921, “Birth Control: To Create a Race of Thoroughbreds.” Her 1932 “Plan for Peace” called for coercive sterilization, mandatory segregation and rehabilitative concentration camps for all “dysgenic stock,” including blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and Catholics. In 1939, Sanger commended Hitler’s Nazi birth control program. In 1957, she was named Humanist of the Year. Tom Crosby Spokane