Letters to the Editor: 2-21-2013

KILLING MY BEES

As winter sets in I spend my evenings worried about my honeybees. I have been noticing a lot of dead bees on the bottom screen boards and it alarms me. I know my bees have visited all my neighbors’ yards. The city of Eugene and some of my neighbors are not only poisoning our bees but our water supply.

 I live in the River Road area and it has come to my attention the city of Eugene has been spraying pesticides in the parks along the Willamette River. I live within 200 yards of the new salmon restoration project. When the city started the project they sprayed poison on the blackberries and other invasive species. Since they started the project they have sprayed poison yearly to combat these invasive plants. The last time they sprayed they did it in the fall of 2012 when the berries were finishing off. The signs they put up to notify the public were very small so people wouldn’t notice them and complain. 

When confronted about the issue, the woman in charge of the project admitted that these practices weren’t sustainable. For those of you who have eaten blackberries along the river you probably have eaten poison. EWEB has notified us now that we are all now drinking poison in our water. I have always believed the quickest way we can destroy life on Earth is to poison our water supply. We must stop the use of pesticides immediately. 

Doug Hornaday, Eugene

 

QUESTION OF TRUST

“Public safety” at what cost? It’s difficult to put a price tag on violent crime. Is the $15.9 million in new taxes for five years, which the Lane County Commissioners have decided we should pay, more than the cost of the crime it would prevent? In case they are unable to do the math, it would provide $120,455 per year for each of the 120 beds they propose to open in the jail. Since the going rate for incarceration is about $30,000 per year, that must be one fancy institution! The proposed tax would also generate $1.45 million per year for youth services. On nine previous occasions “public safety” taxes were rejected, ostensibly because voters did not trust the Lane County government to use their money effectively. If the commissioners think that asking four times as much as they need for each jail bed will improve that level of trust, I suspect they are in for a rude awakening! 

Much as I would like to know that law enforcement has the ability to deal with real threats to our society, in a county whose residents don’t even have access to a library, I believe that if we were to provide the county $15.9 million annually, $10.9 million more than needed, the money could be better used to prevent crime than simply to support incarceration.

For example, how about providing a large dormitory facility to provide for the needs of those who have been left homeless by the continuing economic crisis?

 Marc Shapiro, Eugene

GAY MEN SOCIALS 

Your cover story Feb. 14 on same sex dating was both wonderful and sorely lacking all at same time. It missed two very important points that would have been so simple to include and so appropriate given the timing of your article!

There are actually several groups in town that have regular socials for gay men. There is a movie group, a men’s potluck group, a sports group, and every Wednesday at Cowfish a regular meet-up from 5 to 8 pm.

The Pride Equality group (sponsoring group of Eugene’s annual Summer Pride at Alton Baker Park every August) hosted its first annual Winter Pride event at Cozmic last week, an event made possible by a generous grant from the Pride Foundation. Aug. 10 will be Summer Pride. Please plan to have a nice, prominent article for our summer event! 

 Brian Lewis, Member, Eugene Gay Men’s Social Network Board and Pride Equality Board

SOCIETY MISBEHAVES

Please join me and hopefully the entire city of Eugene and 25,000 UO students to prohibit and abolish Oregon Administration Rule 581.021.553. This rule specifies the use of “seclusion rooms,” the locking up of our littlest students and innocent children in elementary schools who misbehave.

 This week the Oregon House will have a public hearing to prohibit such a law that stood for nine dark years. The number is HB 2756.

It is not our innocent children who are “misbehaved” and therefore being locked up, but foremost the parents, then the schools and all of society. These children only mirror our non-behavior and misconduct. Just look around.

I have identified 37 causes of why a child could misbehave, better expressed as having a reaction to causes in their daily life. In Eugene alone 6,000 school children are hungry and 700 families are homeless. That’s a good cause for being real restless, out of it or not feeling well, which is translated as misbehaving on a school level.

In addition to the cause stated, how about plenty of domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, hefty air pollution and countless children with asthma, or a reaction to medication for our so-called ADD children? Once the seclusion room school team of hired professionals look much, much deeper into a child’s life to recognize reactions that a child has to deal with, they will be able to help and heal that child. It might just take a whole society to look at itself, instead of finger-pointing to our little ones, a heartless thing to do.

Please call our state representatives to prohibit HB 2756. We are our children’s guardian angels.

Jutta Akulina Benner, Eugene

SAFE ROOMS REVISTED

Camas Ridge had taken the door off their safe room in response to your article [“Use of Seclusion Rooms Challenged,” 12/20/12]. Some children actually missed the privacy. Unfortunately they had to put it back on, but they are open to it. The behavioral program at this school is based on a no-touch approach. A no-touch approach can only be achieved through having the time to form a relationship with the child. The program has five employees who cover the whole school. Posses of parents could in no way perform this service. Relationship is essential. 

Thanks to the great staff there who give it their all despite the many insecurities of working with the school district, such as layoffs and temporary assignments.

 Nancy Young, Eugene

RELOCALIZE ALL

The most important question facing the human race is how we respond to the interconnected crises of peaked oil, climate chaos, overpopulation and resource conflicts. 

These crises resemble the parable of the blind men touching an elephant. Each observer is correctly describing what a part of the elephant is, but none have a holistic understanding. Peak oil and climate change are two facets of ecological overshoot, and neither can be mitigated without the other.

The global crises of the end of cheap oil and the start of climate change require global levels of solutions — we need to relocalize everywhere. 

We are not merely at peak oil, we are at peak technology, peak money, peak communication and peak everything else. Real solutions would require us to redirect the energy, talents, resources of global capitalism, the military-industrial complex, universities, media and other pillars of our society.

We have enough resources and talent to shift civilization to create a peaceful world that might be able to gracefully cope with the end of concentrated fossil fuels, or to create a global police state to control populations as the resources decline. The “War on Terror” is actually a long-planned world war to control finite fossil fuels that power civilization.

Understanding why civilization did not respond to the warnings of resource depletion decades ago is needed if a shift toward sanity is still possible. These decisions were not made democratically. Addressing peak and climate issues would require world peace instead of peak oil wars.

We are not “addicted” to oil; the modern world is completely dependent upon fossil fuels for industrial agriculture systems, transportation networks and the growth-based monetary system. Addictions are things you can give up — but oil runs our civilization. 

Mark Robinowitz, Eugene

NO PERS COLA RAID

Gov. John Kitzhaber’s plan to raid the PERS Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to fund education in Oregon is based on a solution that appears appealing on the outside but is not sound reasoning on the inside. 

The first problem is that taking money from one bucket and placing it in another does not increase the total volume of anything in either bucket. It is just as likely that both buckets will suffer loss as overhead costs consume the savings of such a cash transfer. 

Problem two is that PERS retirees use the money they receive from their pensions to pay the rent, purchase goods and services and buy health insurance from the state. Removing the cash from the retirees will in the end remove the cash from the economy as well. Local business and service providers will suffer economic loss. 

The third problem is that this raid on the PERS COLA will be found unlawful by the Oregon Supreme Court. The last time the Legislature attempted to tamper with the PERS COLA they were reversed in the Court. By Kitzhaber’s reasoning, if the state can set the PERS COLA rate, then it could set it to zero, just as easily as it could set it to some other number. The court will not agree to this end run around a contractual agreement entered into by the state and PERS retirees. 

There are other solutions available; the problem with them is that it will take some real political will to bring any of them to the public notice, much less get them enacted into law. On this issue I encourage Lane County representatives to think again and come up with a better solution to the real problems facing the citizens of the state.

Gerry Merritt, Eugene

WHY NO CHILDCARE?

I want to respectfully recommend to the organizers of the Social Justice, Real Justice conference that childcare be taken into consideration in the future.

The website for SJRJ lists the following goals: Provide a space where students, community organizations, marginalized communities and allies can come together to speak on issues underrepresented groups are facing through current and global topics; to solidify solidarity when trying to dismantle various internalized forms of oppression both on an institutional as well as a personal level; and to become actively engaged in the movement and organize toward social justice by providing space for critical discussion and to put the theories to practice.

By failing to provide childcare at a conference addressing these issues, the conference has already partially failed to address the accessibility of social justice movements to enormous segments of most marginalized communities, both within and outside of the student body.

Resources are likely limited and logistics of hosting a large event are enormously complicated, and I congratulate you on bringing together such a fantastic event, full of high-quality speakers and performances. However, I would encourage the organizers to consider the repercussions of failing to provide access to women and families who are consistently unable to attend such activities due to financial constraints. Being involved in various social and environmental events with extremely limited resources or none at all, I assure you that when it comes to providing childcare, the will to make it happen is all that is necessary. Including parents and families in our movements is mandatory, not optional, if we wish to see change.

Jason Gonzales, Walton

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

When will people stand up to these out-of-control county and city officials who squander and manipulate our money while cynically misusing the legal system to defend their own government crimes? They are now letting thieves, thugs, druggies, perverts and killers back out on the streets in an attempt to scare up some more bond money.

These professional crooks are implementing blackmail by holding public safety hostage, just as police fraternal order leader Willy (“Fall on our Swords Over This”) Edewaard said they would. Intentional government malfeasance is a serious crime.

The government is becoming a criminal failure now actively assisting and encouraging criminal culture, letting offenses go unpunished and dangerous persons go free. This is felonious endangerment by our own government! These “officials” and “administrators” deserve some prison time!

Abolish these fraudulent out-of-control city manager and county administrator positions. Fire their wasteful retinues of obsequious flunkies. Oust any activist judge and prosecutor accomplices. Power must rest with elected citizens who are completely accountable to their oath to the community.

We cannot let carefully sequestered bureaucrats remain well insulated from consequences for their profitable crimes. They make careers of abusing and usurping our authority, eroding our society and environment. They must be halted in their tracks and brought to justice.

Mike McFadden, Eugene

EWEB’S AVATARS

A lot has been written in recent months about how sensitive the EWEB board is to its customers. While there may be good and necessary reasons for rate increases, it is the small things that reveal how in touch the utility really is with its customer base. Take, for example, the recent changes in EWEB’s online billing system.

For security reasons, the payment site requires the customer to select an avatar from a selection of 64 cartoons of people with indicators of their jobs. Of the 64 icons only four are female. None of the females are accompanied by an obvious indicator of a highly skilled profession, Only two of the avatars are not Caucasian and neither the dark-skinned male nor the Asian avatar in the stereotypical coolie hat is accompanied by an indicator of a job.

Fortunately, there is an avatar wearing a clown costume that can be selected to represent the buffoons who offer up this culturally insensitive menu.

 Marilyn Hedtke, Eugene

SUPER CITIZENS

There is no legal status of corporate personhood. Yet corporations, in effect, have been empowered by the courts that designated corporate money as being the cash flow of citizens and thus permitted as political contributions, making them a species of super citizens. Let me explain.

I think the problem is that while there is no “corporate personhood” status on paper, there is in social effect:

1) Corporations are aggregations of people whose leadership represents only what was called virtual representation by the Founding Fathers when referring to “leaders” assigned to them by Britain. There is a disconnect in likeness between those being led and their leaders.

2) The “people” of a corporation are either the stockholders whose only contractual concern, by law, is profit on investment, or the management team, a group of individuals protected from prosecution and thus aren’t held legally liable for their actions the way real citizens are. 

3) This is why the effect of corporate personhood is as pernicious as an actual legal status. The overweening tidal wave of cash into elections from corporations is money coming from a social entity with only profit as a motive and no legal liability for criminality, no motive for social responsibility. 

Corporations are evil social super-citizens in reality. Don’t take my word for it. Buy Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and read all the entries for “corporation” in the index. The majority of these warn us of how the corporation by nature destabilizes the market system. Surprised? The people who waved the Wealth of Nations never read it, just like the people who wave Bibles. Corporations destabilize the political system in the same way!

Leo Rivers, Cottage Grove

FUBAR IN JAPAN

It has been just over nine months since I wrote a letter to the editor of the EW, expressing my grave concern for the ongoing disaster in Fukushima. The catastrophe has only gotten worse. It has been confirmed by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that three plants are in worse than meltdown since March 11, 2011, they are now in full China Syndrome, reactor #4 (the most dangerous) is tilting and sinking at a slow rate. It has been coined FUBAR (F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition, their scientists’ term, not mine). 

In Fukushima, the Japanese government installed its own radiation detectors beside the ones installed by international monitors: They didn’t like the results of the standard radiation monitors and installed radiation detectors that provide test results with 40 percent less radiation.

Last week, I read that TEPCO plans on building a pumping station to pump the water used to cool the melted plants directly into the Pacific Ocean. Their plans state they will thoroughly decontaminate the water before sending it back into the Pacific. Can we trust this corporation to tell the truth? They installed their own monitors to lie about radiation levels around schools, hospitals and parks, among their many lies. 

I decided to take action. I invited Kevin Blanch, an outspoken anti-nuke activist, to come speak in Eugene to discuss the latest hidden facts about Fukushima. The event will be held at Harris Hall from 7 to 9 pm Thursday, March 14, at Harris Hall. 

The gloves are off. Secret of the new meme: Nuclear is not clean energy. 

Lonnie Clark, Eugene

NOTHING IN RETURN

Let me see if I understand this correctly: Lane County officials want voters to pass a new five-year tax measure to fund the jail.

Currently, of the total property taxes we pay to Lane County, approximately 63 percent, goes to the Sheriff’s Department. For people “west of the tunnel,” that 63 percent buys nothing! 

Sheriff’s deputies come to the coast only when a serious felony has been committed. Then the response time can be four or more hours! Sans a major felony, LCSD tells coastal residents to “mail in a report.

Deputy Boggs is assigned to the greater coastal area but his salary comes from a federal grant, not part of the 63 percent of taxes we pay to the county. What will happen when the federal grant ends? Will the county refund us a portion of our tax bill? No wonder county personnel refer to coastal residents as a “cash cow”! Residents of outlying areas pay taxes, yet receive nothing in return.

Now we’ll be asked to raise our taxes by voting for another levy. Why? So we can pay more for something we don’t get now and won’t receive later.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Lea Patten, Florence

NRA LOGIC

Here’s how your medical care would go if your family doctor followed the “reasoning” of the NRA:

If you burned a finger, the doctor would recommend that you put your whole hand into a pot of boiling water. If, unlikely as it seems, the wrenching pain did not go away, the doctor would then recommend filling your sink with boiling water and sticking your entire arm in it. If that still did not work (although it strains credulity to think that it wouldn’t), and you were still suffering searing pain, the doctor would recommend taking a shower in boiling water. If the horrific anguish still did not end, the doctor would recommend that you (or anyone with a burn) should get your head examined and that all kitchens have someone standing by with a pot of scalding water, just in case.

But really folks, the important thing to recall here is “What Would Heston Do?” Why, if it were up to him, he would confiscate all the hot water — problem solved!

Remember people, hot water doesn’t cause burns, heat does.

Jamie Selko, Eugene

JUST A LOBBYIST

Wayne LaPierre, leader of the NRA, is not in the business of compromise. He’s in the business of selling guns. He says, “gun control folks are trying to end the right to own guns.” That plays well in the land of “no compromise,” but it’s not true. Ninety percent of the citizens believe in the right to own guns.

In 1996, former President George Bush, Sr. resigned his NRA membership due to the radical direction LaPierre was taking it. That NRA is much more radical today.

Why should we be negotiating with a lobbyist in the first place? Peddling influence with big chunks of money and threats to defeat politicians is what they do. LaPierre is simply a lightning rod diverting our attention from our real target. Politicians will decide this issue. We must demand to know where they stand, and what they are doing to reduce gun violence. 

Our own Congressman Peter DeFazio gets a C+ rating by the NRA. Given the radical nature of the NRA that is unacceptable. We need to encourage DeFazio to get lower grades, in this case, and we need to watch how he votes.

Peter “Mike” Manley, Eugene

THE CANARY SPEAKS

Hi there. Local canary here. I used to be a “canary in the coal mine” in California but after “The Terminator” decided to crop-dust the northern coast of California to kill the light brown apple moth, rendering me so ill I could no longer walk or talk, I decided to take roost here in Eugene. 

Normally I go about my business trying to deal with a fairly debilitating illness without any affordable health care and usually I only share this information with close friends and people who care about me, but as of late I have noticed something I thought may impact others here in our beautiful city. Around the holidays I began to notice some disturbing reactions. I work in a local grocery store and at work I would feel like I was going to faint, my nose would run, and I would get a terrible headache. I am used to feeling pretty weird most of the time so I just work through it, keep myself from becoming broke and homeless, and go home to detox. That’s the life of a canary: you try to do the best you can. 

Unfortunately for the last four weeks, I started having these reactions in other stores, and then started having reactions to the groceries I bring home. When I pick up certain items at certain groceries stores around town it literally makes me shake and almost pass out. 

When I eat these foods I feel like I have the flu, only it’s not like any flu I have had before. It also feels like an allergic reaction. So why share all this? The Springfield/Eugene area has been hit hard with the flu, but this experience has made me wonder if it was the actual flu or if some of the grocery distribution centers have begun using some new chemical protocol for sanitation or pest control in the warehouses? Or has our food supply become contaminated in other ways? Does anyone else have any information, experiences or thoughts on this subject? I would love to know.

Anne Forster, Eugene

KILLER CLAWS & JAWS

A recent study by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service found that cats kill billions more wildlife every year than previously believed. This points to the need to keep our feline family members indoors and to ensure that every cat is spayed or neutered.

Cats who are allowed to roam outdoors not only take a massive toll on vulnerable wildlife species such as birds, they often fall victim to cruel fates themselves. Every year, countless cats who are left outdoors unsupervised are killed by cars, poisoned, attacked by other animals, sickened by contagious diseases, stolen for experimentation and worse.

Keeping our cats indoors will help prevent them from killing or being killed, but as the study points out, homeless cats kill the most wildlife. Spaying and neutering are the keys to preventing more cats from being born only to end up living outdoors, where small animals stand no chance against their claws and jaws.

For the sake of cats and wildlife, please have your cats spayed or neutered and keep them safe in the “great indoors.”

Curtis Taylor, Eugene

VEGAN LIVING

There are several problems of that are proportionally great in today’s world: overpopulation, resource depletion and pollution.

The first of these can be addressed separately from the last two. With education and free birth control to couples involved, this could be easily resolved in all parts of the world. To think it would be a big expense to society to have youngsters having sex for free, I need only to remind you that all forms of contraceptives are cheap if and when big pharmaceutical companies negotiate with the world’s governments for lower prices.

The last two, resource depletion and pollution result from many factors. Depending on who studies this, the causes can vary greatly. My perspective, veganism, maintains that to produce 1 pound of flesh for human consumption you need to feed an animal between 16 and 21 pounds of plant food. In today’s factory farms these vegetarian animals such as chicken, cows, pigs, etc., are also fed ground-up remains of other animals including roadkill and euthanized pets. In dairy farms the rationale for this is that cholesterol in the diet will produce more milk and plants aren’t a natural source of cholesterol. 

My point here is that if one were to eat low on the food chain, unnecessary waste could be done away with. Along with edible plants, water waste, fuel, fertilizers and yes, painful stimuli to the nerves of the sentient creatures, this matter could be resolved simply with our dietary choices. 

Dave Ivan Piccioni, Eugene

FUBAR IN JAPAN

It has been just over nine months since I wrote a letter to the editor of the EW, expressing my grave concern for the ongoing disaster in Fukushima. The catastrophe has only gotten worse. It has been confirmed by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that three plants are in worse than meltdown since March 11, 2011, they are now in full China Syndrome, reactor #4 (the most dangerous) is tilting and sinking at a slow rate. It has been coined FUBAR (F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition, their scientists’ term, not mine). 

In Fukushima, the Japanese government installed its own radiation detectors beside the ones installed by international monitors: They didn’t like the results of the standard radiation monitors and installed radiation detectors that provide test results with 40 percent less radiation.

Last week, I read that TEPCO plans on building a pumping station to pump the water used to cool the melted plants directly into the Pacific Ocean. Their plans state they will thoroughly decontaminate the water before sending it back into the Pacific. Can we trust this corporation to tell the truth? They installed their own monitors to lie about radiation levels around schools, hospitals and parks, among their many lies. 

I decided to take action. I invited Kevin Blanch, an outspoken anti-nuke activist, to come speak in Eugene to discuss the latest hidden facts about Fukushima. The event will be held at Harris Hall from 7 to 9 pm Thursday, March 14, at Harris Hall. 

The gloves are off. Secret of the new meme: Nuclear is not clean energy. 

Lonnie Clark, Eugene

NOTHING IN RETURN

Let me see if I understand this correctly: Lane County officials want voters to pass a new five-year tax measure to fund the jail.

Currently, of the total property taxes we pay to Lane County, approximately 63 percent, goes to the Sheriff’s Department. For people “west of the tunnel,” that 63 percent buys nothing! 

Sheriff’s deputies come to the coast only when a serious felony has been committed. Then the response time can be four or more hours! Sans a major felony, LCSD tells coastal residents to “mail in a report.

Deputy Boggs is assigned to the greater coastal area but his salary comes from a federal grant, not part of the 63 percent of taxes we pay to the county. What will happen when the federal grant ends? Will the county refund us a portion of our tax bill? No wonder county personnel refer to coastal residents as a “cash cow”! Residents of outlying areas pay taxes, yet receive nothing in return.

Now we’ll be asked to raise our taxes by voting for another levy. Why? So we can pay more for something we don’t get now and won’t receive later.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Lea Patten, Florence

NRA LOGIC

Here’s how your medical care would go if your family doctor followed the “reasoning” of the NRA:

If you burned a finger, the doctor would recommend that you put your whole hand into a pot of boiling water. If, unlikely as it seems, the wrenching pain did not go away, the doctor would then recommend filling your sink with boiling water and sticking your entire arm in it. If that still did not work (although it strains credulity to think that it wouldn’t), and you were still suffering searing pain, the doctor would recommend taking a shower in boiling water. If the horrific anguish still did not end, the doctor would recommend that you (or anyone with a burn) should get your head examined and that all kitchens have someone standing by with a pot of scalding water, just in case.

But really folks, the important thing to recall here is “What Would Heston Do?” Why, if it were up to him, he would confiscate all the hot water — problem solved!

Remember people, hot water doesn’t cause burns, heat does.

Jamie Selko, Eugene

JUST A LOBBYIST

Wayne LaPierre, leader of the NRA, is not in the business of compromise. He’s in the business of selling guns. He says, “gun control folks are trying to end the right to own guns.” That plays well in the land of “no compromise,” but it’s not true. Ninety percent of the citizens believe in the right to own guns.

In 1996, former President George Bush, Sr. resigned his NRA membership due to the radical direction LaPierre was taking it. That NRA is much more radical today.

Why should we be negotiating with a lobbyist in the first place? Peddling influence with big chunks of money and threats to defeat politicians is what they do. LaPierre is simply a lightning rod diverting our attention from our real target. Politicians will decide this issue. We must demand to know where they stand, and what they are doing to reduce gun violence. 

Our own Congressman Peter DeFazio gets a C+ rating by the NRA. Given the radical nature of the NRA that is unacceptable. We need to encourage DeFazio to get lower grades, in this case, and we need to watch how he votes.

Peter “Mike” Manley, Eugene

THE CANARY SPEAKS

Hi there. Local canary here. I used to be a “canary in the coal mine” in California but after “The Terminator” decided to crop-dust the northern coast of California to kill the light brown apple moth, rendering me so ill I could no longer walk or talk, I decided to take roost here in Eugene. 

Normally I go about my business trying to deal with a fairly debilitating illness without any affordable health care and usually I only share this information with close friends and people who care about me, but as of late I have noticed something I thought may impact others here in our beautiful city. Around the holidays I began to notice some disturbing reactions. I work in a local grocery store and at work I would feel like I was going to faint, my nose would run, and I would get a terrible headache. I am used to feeling pretty weird most of the time so I just work through it, keep myself from becoming broke and homeless, and go home to detox. That’s the life of a canary: you try to do the best you can. 

Unfortunately for the last four weeks, I started having these reactions in other stores, and then started having reactions to the groceries I bring home. When I pick up certain items at certain groceries stores around town it literally makes me shake and almost pass out. 

When I eat these foods I feel like I have the flu, only it’s not like any flu I have had before. It also feels like an allergic reaction. So why share all this? The Springfield/Eugene area has been hit hard with the flu, but this experience has made me wonder if it was the actual flu or if some of the grocery distribution centers have begun using some new chemical protocol for sanitation or pest control in the warehouses? Or has our food supply become contaminated in other ways? Does anyone else have any information, experiences or thoughts on this subject? I would love to know.

Anne Forster, Eugene

KILLER CLAWS & JAWS

A recent study by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service found that cats kill billions more wildlife every year than previously believed. This points to the need to keep our feline family members indoors and to ensure that every cat is spayed or neutered.

Cats who are allowed to roam outdoors not only take a massive toll on vulnerable wildlife species such as birds, they often fall victim to cruel fates themselves. Every year, countless cats who are left outdoors unsupervised are killed by cars, poisoned, attacked by other animals, sickened by contagious diseases, stolen for experimentation and worse.

Keeping our cats indoors will help prevent them from killing or being killed, but as the study points out, homeless cats kill the most wildlife. Spaying and neutering are the keys to preventing more cats from being born only to end up living outdoors, where small animals stand no chance against their claws and jaws.

For the sake of cats and wildlife, please have your cats spayed or neutered and keep them safe in the “great indoors.”

Curtis Taylor, Eugene