Document text
Letters to the editor: Watch the pet food you buy Would you pay someone to mistreat animals? Not intentionally, of course, but that's what you're doing when you go to the store to buy food for your dog or cat. Pet foods are made from "4D" animals: Dead, Dying, Diseased, and Disabled when they arrived at the slaughterhouse. They're considered unfit for human consumption, but the abusers still make a nice profit because these animals can be processed as pet food. Here's the recipe: Start with by-products left after the human grade parts are processed - heads, beaks, etc., and excised infectious or cancerous cysts. Add whole sick or diseased animals, which are not identified on the label, because they're not by-products. These are used even in the premium brands. Occasionally, throw in road kill and euthanized cats and dogs. Finally, use hydrochloric acid to dissolve slaughterhouse waste, mix it with rancid fat, and add it to the food. There are healthy vegan alternatives available. Visit http://www.vegancats.com or http://www.petfoodshop.com to learn more. I'd like to place a large order to bring down the cost. I'm not making a nickel on this, but a 5 percent surcharge will benefit the Southern Oregon Animal Rights Society. Call me at 482-4556. Ron Elterman, Ashland Take time to read the EIS report I was disturbed to read in the Mail Tribune that a "citizen activist" "wasn't impressed" with the Forest Service Draft Environmental Impact Statement and analysis of the six alternatives for improving the Mt. Ashland resort area because he did not agree with the conclusions of the study. I think the Forest Service specialists and the impressive group of other professionals did a masterful job. Their research was appropriate and their exploration of various developmental options presented by the myriad of community observers was thoughtful and objective. It is my hope those who publicly comment on this most recent Forest Service study will first look at and evaluate the procedures and processes used in preparing the report before dismissing it as not acceptable because of disagreement with the conclusions. Extensive time and resources have been expended exploring the opportunities and challenges of utilizing the Mt. Ashland area in an environmentally sound manner. Isn't it now possible to move forward and utilize this research information as a guide to our decision making and plan development? Stewart McCollom, Ed.D., Ashland Better things to do than a crosswalk sting I have lived in Ashland for 40 years, and have never understood why pedestrians rule the world. Businesses of all kinds depend on our streets to complete their days. They pay taxes and help keep this town alive. I believe we all stop for children, the elderly, and sometimes, even when we don't want to, tourists. Why does our police department have the time to give unnecessary tickets to hard working people? Maybe we should stop the drug flow in town instead of ticketing our working public. I think the APD should let the pedestrians wait their turn and spend more time fighting real crime. Michael Dauenhauer, Ashland Guest forum: Article unfairly hurts family and supporters S. Coffman Ashland I read your scathing article on Gregory Harvey in the July 3 edition of the Daily Tidings and am sickened by your lack of compassion and ethical responsibility to the youth of our community. Is it a requirement of your newspaper to print a child's name, one who hasn't even been prosecuted, on the front page or did you consider that a bonus? Do you have any idea of the negative impact that your front page story will have on this teenager and his family? These allegations have not even been substantiated and yet you have slandered a young boy's name and reputation and now the livelihood of his family is in jeopardy based on your unnecessary and extremely insensitive article. Even if his alleged crime is dropped or even reduced, I'm sure it won't make the headlines, so your article has deemed him guilty in the eyes of our very small community, a mark that he must bear for the rest of his life. How dare you! How do you and your editors sleep at night knowing that you have damaged the lives of an entire family, not to mention the many children that Gregory's mother has so lovingly served and who must now struggle to find quality childcare. Did you ever consider the consequences of your words � or do you even have an ethical bone in your body? I've lived in Ashland for 13 years mainly because most people here still care about each other and do what they can to promote a healthy sense of community for all, yet your disgusting display of news mongering smacks of a heartless and money-driven big city newspaper. I am ashamed to see that ratings have become more important than quality of life. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. You have lost a reader and a long-time supporter of this publication. SARS hype has been an injustice Patti Morey Ashland Investors in the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation are doubtless very pleased with the "SARS" scare. 3M's stock has soared with requests for their gauze face masks and they've barely been able to keep up with production. According to the World Health Organization, in the past 8 1/2 months there've been a whopping 646 deaths due to SARS in China, a country a billion and a half people strong. Golly gee. Thirty-six thousand (36,000) Americans die each year from the common flu, a highly contagious viral illness, and we number only three hundred million. We've got about one-fifth the population and sixty times the deaths. Thus, I for one have marveled at all the Emperor's New Clothes hoopla and cultivated panic in China which seems mysteriously to rival that of Iraq's imaginary "WMD's". Trade restrictions and quarantines would add substance to the illusion. Moreover, Wen Jiabo, China's new State Premier, has stated, "SARS poses a threat to the economy, national prestige and social stability of China," (oh uh-huh), and China's health officials are "warning" people to wear face masks. Furthermore, Chinese law has recently been reinterpreted so that those who cause death or injury by "deliberately spreading" SARS (i.e.: not wearing a 3M face mask) can be sentenced to prison for 10 years to life or face execution. New leadership, new laws, new profits. How tantalizing. In my opinion, comparing the statistics, it's a wonder atypical pneumonia, aka: "severe acute respiratory syndrome" has even attained acronym status. I think certain of China's lenders and/or leaders may be major stockholders in 3M Corp. and this is a ploy to generate much-needed additional funding for China's Three Gorges Dam and Yangtze River Diversion projects. Many American companies have invested in those projects, including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch. (Many American investors unwittingly further the extinction of the Tibetans and the environment). It's really quite ridiculous and I'm very alarmed as an American citizen to note how our own media has neglected to point out the relative insignificance of "SARS" as an illness compared with the flu. As if we, the people are tended as sheep; is this why the schools receive so little funding for liberal arts - to reduce thought and produce workers who willingly accept manipulations of reality for the redistribution of wealth? Buy a mask or go to jail and work for no pay at all. "Prevention" offers no adequate argument. 646 deaths does not merit China in face masks, quarantine and trade restriction before our 36,000. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -