Letters to the editor
No excuse
Free kittens, free puppies, we have all seen the signs and ads in the papers. For people who work tirelessly in animal welfare it is enough to make you throw up your hands in defeat. The over population of cats and dogs is a serious issue in our country and in Lake County, with serious consequences, the killing of healthy animals because there is not enough homes for them all. The people in animal welfare see it time and time again, people who:
1. Get kittens and puppies because they are “so cute,” then grow tired of them when they grow out of the cute stage.
2. Do not get their animals fixed for a variety of inexcusable reasons, thereby contributing to the overpopulation issue.
3. They are going to let their pretty doggie have a litter and then sell them.
The list of reasons goes on and on, and we in animal welfare shake our heads in sorrow and frustration. The majority of people through television,
Internet and education by animal welfare groups know there is an over population of animals and there is no excuse for not have your pets spayed or neutered.
Life Savers Animal Rescue offers spay/neuter assistance to the public to the tune of $30,000 annually. The Mission Valley Animal Shelter offers the same help. The Lake County Spay/Neuter Task Force offered a low cost spring and fall spay/neuter clinic that serviced a total of 234 animals. But the real and most obvious answer is for people to take responsibility for their animals and not rely on an organization to spay/neuter or find homes for them. Animal welfare groups cannot save all of them. Be part of the solution not the problem. No more excuses, spay/neuter and make a lifetime commitment to your pet.
Vicki Scheidecker
Life Savers Animal
Rescue, Polson
Monster math
Paul Fugleberg’s column in the October 25th issue of The Leader is very interesting. He starts with steamboats and ends with monsters.
Flathead Lake is only one of many lakes with a “monster.” Wikipedia lists 94 such creatures, and says there are more. Flathead is not on their list.
Just a casual look at these reports raises some questions. All the sightings I have read describe only one monster each. Many reports are over 150 years old. If there is only one monster in any location, how could it live so long? Except for some turtles, how many creatures of any kind live 150 years? Surely a minimum population is required to maintain reproduction. Two, or even four, would not guarantee reproduction indefinitely. However, I have never seen a report of anyone sighting more than one at a time. Why no groups?
Could some of these “monsters” be extra large specimens of known species? A giant sturgeon has been suggested for Flathead Lake, and Red Lake in Minnesota. A large freshwater eel has been suggested for Lake Willoughby in Vermont. Some individuals in any population will occasionally grow extra large. This may explain occasional individual sightings over many years, giving the illusion of a single long-lived monster.
I am not a monsterologist, but there is my answer to some of the sightings. Perhaps some local monster students (student monsters?) would like to offer their answers.
Dale Ferguson
Polson
Water rights
There’s an old game back in town, reinvigorated for our current water rights negotiation: if you say something repeatedly, over a long enough period, people will not only lose their doubts as to its validity, but will actually begin to embrace it as a truth until they also restate it with conviction; while it actually remains a fabrication, or untruth.
It’s a neat trick, especially when you bury these degrees of separation in long winded, official sounding dissertations – both verbal and printed. They are embedded into the subconscious as we attempt to absorb information regarding what should be pretty simple issues that have been made – as in “man made” – very complex situations…by men who apparently have nothing better to do with their lives. Water rights could be solved by a board of 7 high school students, given a few basic parameters or conditions.
When a document says it’s okay for a group of people who like to fish, to wander out of their neighborhood and drop a hook in the water, in common with the actual current landowners of the surrounding area, it does not give those wandering people “out of the neighborhood, time immemorial water rights” to those rivers or streams or lakes. Especially when those same wandering people ‘ceded, relinquished or conveyed’ that land and the water it contains to another entity; they no longer have any rights to it, legal or otherwise.
If you sell your field, in the south part of town, and buy a new one in the north part of town, you can no longer go back to the ‘old’ field and plant corn just because you “used” to own it; even if your sale agreement stated that you could visit it or walk through it “in common” with the new owners. Is that simple enough for you? Stating that the right to fish ‘in common’ with the citizens of the Territory (who now own your old property) does not give this confederated tribe any rights to the control of the water off the reservation – for fisheries or any other use beyond the stated Treaty right to fish. Sorry.
Michael Gale
Ronan
Hindsight is 20/20
I am sure many of you can identify with the feeling, “Darn, I wish I would have said...”
At the annual Polson Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet on Friday, Nov. 2, twenty two persons were recognized for their work as teachers, city employees, businesses and individuals in agriculture, non-profits and businesses, citizens and volunteers. I was recognized as the Polson Ambassador Volunteer of the Year and when accepting the award I wish that I would have said:
“I am impressed with the Polson Chamber of Commerce. Your positive energy and attitudes are electric. This room tonight is pulsating with youthful vibes and people ready to be involved and work for the betterment of our community. I thank the chamber board and members for also volunteering their time for Polson. It is sad, however, to think that there are many community volunteers who do not get recognized for their unselfish giving. I am fortunate to have been recognized. Thank you!”
Valerie Lindstrom
Polson