Cruel and callous
Strange to think that in progressive and enlightened Seattle, there still exist cruel and callous individuals who hunt for sport, eat factory-farmed beef and pork, wear fur, attend animal-based circuses, frequent rodeos, and shoot cougars out of trees. That's why reading the gallingly insensitive "The Beast in Your Backyard" [7/27] was less a shock than a renewed call to action for animal rights activists, who despite the occasional setback are still marching proudly on the right side of history. The fact that you ran a trembling solicitation for letters from non-activists shows that you expected the rightful outrage that would ensue from such an article. You obviously were playing to the tyrannical but powerful minority in our society who still think it's acceptable to kill innocent creatures whose only crime is to be caught under the steamroller of so-called human progress. Your "field guide" to presumed quarry was especially offensive.
Remember, it doesn't matter what the species is: They were here first and deserve to be protected—which means it's time to quit encroaching on their habitat. Oh, and as for wildlife killer Wayne Switzer's observation about possums: I'd say hunters and trappers in general, captured symbolically by the gun-toting, blood-lusting, cigarette-smoking cretin on your cover, are far more disgusting than a small nocturnal marsupial with poor eyesight and an unfortunate propensity toward ending up under car wheels.
It's heartening to know that I-713, the anti-trapping initiative that recently qualified for the November ballot, will be embraced at the polls by compassionate people throughout the state. If Switzer has any doubts about the barbarism of the leg-hold traps that measure is targeting, he should place one of his appendages in one and see how it feels.
DAVID G. BOWMAN
LYNNWOOD
No joke, dammit
Brian Miller and Desmond Fleefer did a feature story on the urban wildlife problem ["The Beast in Your Backyard," 7/27] and only included kitty-cats as a JOKE? Come ON! Do you guys live in a vacuum?
Feral cats are a TREMENDOUS problem in Seattle. More than 100 wild cats are neutered EVERY MONTH (since 1997) by the sainted volunteers at the Feral Cat Spay/ Neuter Project (www.spaycat.org), and anyone remotely involved with cat rescue knows they're only getting the tip of the iceberg. Feral cat colonies, managed (spayed, fed, vaccinated, etc.) and unmanaged, exist in the CD, Rainier Valley, Georgetown, South Park, Northgate, West Seattle, Ballard—EVERYWHERE. Wake up and look around.
Feral populations start with cats who have been dumped or abandoned. They become wild animals after a few months on the street—if they survive—and soon produce kittens who have never known a human touch. (Yeah, they're cute, and no, you can't cuddle them.) They're the sad product of "owners" too ignorant to get their pets spayed or too egotistical to get them neutered, and those of us who just adore kittens but find grown-up cats "inconvenient." Any veterinarian will tell you that domestic cats can't survive on their own. It's very sad—they die of exposure, or malnourishment, or commonly benign ailments: fleas can kill a feral kitten. And if the ferals aren't dying of starvation and neglect, they're multiplying—exponentially.
An unspayed female cat can have 20 kittens in a year. Five years ago—before the FCSNP, Alley Cat Allies, etc.—the only alternative was to let them die off, or, indeed, kill them. A few jerks still kill them today, cruelly, on the sly, right here in Seattle. Some get trapped and go to Animal Control—who mean well, but they have a horrible job, snuffing out thousands of unwanted pets each year. I can only endorse trap/neuter/release. I encountered the feral problem after moving to the Central District in 1998. Since then I have spayed and/or neutered over 25 feral cats, had three euthanized (all fatally ill), and nursed, tamed, and adopted out more than 15—and I'm just a lightweight.
Don't even joke about dumping "Fluffy" in a park. I know you're trying to be clever and callous ("cool"), but please—do a little freaking homework.
Spay/neuter, dammit!
SARA D.
VIA E-MAIL
Canine oversight
You omitted the most obnoxious and ubiquitous pest of all: the boyfriend's dog ["The Beast in Your Backyard," 7/27]. I'll bet the author owns one!
BETTE FELTON
SEATTLE
Mixed bag
Your article on urban critters ["The Beast in Your Backyard," 7/27] was a mixed bag of humor, misinformation, and bad advice.
I-713 in no way prohibits dealing with nuisance animals in Seattle. It prohibits only body-gripping traps which torture animals. (In fact, such traps are already outlawed in seattle.) As for shooting animals with pellet/BB guns, it is illegal to discharge any firearm in the city, including these.
As for driving your girlfriend's hated cat to Oregon and abandoning it, dumping pets is illegal in both states.
B. VARDEN
SEATTLE
DSHS and savings
Social Security Facilitators at DSHS have been cut by half in a model program that SAVES the State and taxpayers money every day [see "Whose welfare?" 7/27]! Besides providing a better life for truly deserving and disabled citizens by assisting them through the tricky process of obtaining federal benefits, this program is saving the State of Washington thousands of dollars everyday in money grants and medical expenditures that would be given out in State Funds.
