Save the animals

[Re: “Pet sanctuary,” People, Aug. 13] I have been a volunteer with the SPCA Montérégie for eight years and applaud Linda Robertson for all that she has done and continues to do to help animals. I just hope that one day animals will have the protection they deserve from the inhumane people who use and abuse them. The only way this will happen is by having articles like yours in the public domain.

There are lots of animal lovers out there and we spend a lot of time discussing how things need to change, but it is usually behind closed doors. Thanks to the Mirror for continuing to educate the public on the awful truth regarding the lack of laws protecting these loving, furry friends of ours.

>>Christie Williamson

A girl told me this morning on the bus—she works near Place d’Armes—that yesterday, a horse out of heat and fatigue dropped in the street and was too weak to even try to get up. She saw the horse and felt so sorry for him.

There is a law that says that at a certain degree of temperature and humidity the horses are not allowed to pull the “calèche.” That’s what I told her and she said that the owners of the calèches don’t care, they get a fine and pay it and get back on the streets. It’s just horrible to treat animals this way.

>>Janine Ogorek

[Re: “Blood in The Water,” Film, Cover, Aug 13] The documentary The Cove deserves many awards for capturing the annual dolphin massacres in Japan on camera in graphic detail. Massacring dolphins by the hundreds and selling them as whale meat is totally unnecessary in today’s technologically advanced, wealthy Japan. It is a pity most Japanese people do not know about this cruelty or do not bother to protest against this practice.

Dolphins are man’s best friend in water, and dogs are man’s best friend on land. Judging by the number of dogs that are abandoned by humans and then euthanized, one could safely say man has an abominable track record on treating his best friends on land and in water.

Animal rights activists are far from safe, and animal advocates or animal researchers often meet a brutal, untimely end because of cruel human beings.

Remember Dian Fossey, who studied and protected mountain gorillas in Africa, but was brutally murdered in 1985. And remember author and naturalist Joy Adamson, who wrote the book Born Free, and who also was horrifically murdered, in 1980. Let us appreciate the courageous work of Ric O’Barry and Louie Psihoyos in producing the excellent documentary.

>>Manish Patwari

No pasta diaspora

[Re: “The pasta diaspora,” Letters, Aug. 20] Ed Binder claimed, if I am understanding correctly, that “perhaps some day, pasta scattered all over the world, will return to claim a place under the sun in its place of birth: China” and that pasta is a “unique Chinese invention, which a famous Italian traveller, Marco Polo, managed to smuggle out of its ancestral home and disperse it throughout the world,” as he was trying to compare the spread of pasta to the descendants of Israelites.

I would just like to clarify that “pasta” in its different forms has been made in Italy since the time of the Romans and as well as throughout the world long before Marco Polo. The story of Marco Polo bringing pasta/noodles back with him from China as the “origins” of pasta in Italy and the Western world has been debunked for quite some time.

Maybe it’s because my last name ends in a vowel but I felt the need to clarify and point out that the letter writer needs to do more research next time to validate his arguments.

>>Marco Lucci

Don’t let Jackson
off hook

[Re: “Cashing in on cashing out,” News, July 16] Ian Halperin makes unsubstantiated claims about Michael Jackson’s innocence despite lingering accusations of child molestation. But exactly how does the hearsay of children who were never privy to Jackson’s dealings with Jordan Chandler or Gavin Arvizo discredit their allegations? Halperin proclaims that, “All the kids that I interviewed at Neverland said that, with Chandler and Arvizo, it was just grand extortion.”

Phew! That settles it. Given the reliable testimonies of immature star-struck fans, it’s a wonder that Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon even bothered to bring charges against Jackson in 2003, after years of painstaking investigation. That case, involving Arvizo, collapsed because of an unsympathetic witness, while Jackson paid Chandler’s parents upwards of $25 million not to press charges. Unfortunately, he fails to recognize Jacko’s M.O.: when he was finished using people, he paid them to get lost.

>>Deborah Rankin

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