Letters to the Editor - 6/16/2009
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share thisToo many kitties
Editor: The heartbreak of "kitten season" has begun, as evidenced in the growing number of "Free to Good Home" classified ads appearing in The Times-Tribune daily. In a recent edition, 14 such advertisements for free kittens or cats were listed.
Cat owners need to be aware that the majority of kittens born throughout the United States each year do not find caring, permanent homes. Many are abandoned, neglected, abused, or must be humanely euthanized in local shelters to make room for the endless parade of kittens being turned in. And handing over any pet to a complete stranger who answered a free classified ad is certainly not the way to ensure that an animal is going to a responsible home.
The good news is that this problem can be easily solved. All pet owners should ensure that their pets are spayed or neutered at the appropriate age. Not only does this prevent the birth of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens, but also provides many health and social benefits for your pet. Most humane organizations provide or can refer low-cost pet sterilization programs.
Please remember to stop by one of our area's animal shelters if you are thoughtfully considering the addition of a new pet to your family. They have a large selection of dogs, cats and other companion animals waiting for a second chance at life.
DONNA MACKIW
President
Humane Society of Wyoming County
Healthy incentive
Editor: Members of Congress receive health care coverage. Isn't that just dandy? We're providing it for them, while some of them won't vote to give us access to affordable comprehensive, universal health care.
Let's make them an offer they cannot refuse. If they don't develop and pass universal health care for us, then they should lose their publicly funded, excellent coverage and be required to obtain and pay for coverage as individuals. Let them be subject to having their applications approved or denied by the underwriters of the companies to which they apply.
Also, any member of Congress who has received sizable contributions from health care and big pharmaceutical companies must recuse himself from voting on this matter. They are biased and will only be voting for their own interests.
Contact your representatives and let them know their jobs (as well as their health benefits) are "on the line." It will make a difference.
SUSAN ZITO
GREENTOWN,
PIKE COUNTY
Help for women
Editor: As a woman, I would like to focus on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. Unions improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder, who disproportionately are women and minorities.
The Employee Free Choice Act presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our best chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.
LAURIE MERRITT
Wilkes-Barre
5 posted comments
Sure I "pay" for my own coverage, but that was one of the things I and my husband "budgeted" for during our retirement years and saved for as we got older. I and my husband are "trilled" with our coverage and fear any "Universal" plan will wind up being the tax burden on the ones keeping their coverage to pay for the uninsured!
l. Put all those responible for the Courthouse renovation and
the 500 block of Lacawanna Avenue in Guantanamo Bay. This disgraceful plundering of the tax payers money is blatantly criminal.
2. Tax the not for profits that should lose their 501 c3 status for
bulldosing the communities they claim to serve. a ten percent flat tax on income and realestate taxes will keep the cancers of the CMC and University from metastisising.