Punish Paypal

I read Sasha's column last week [July 24] and found her suggestion to thousands of readers to sign an online petition boycotting Paypal not very well thought out.

Why automatically send people to sign an easy petition that will likely do little to change the situation? Urging people to propose solutions and open Paypal's eyes would be more constructive, wouldn't you say? We should flood Paypal with letters illustrating the ill nature of their policies and reasons why many people have problems with the way they operate.

Let's find a way to change the biggest (and monopolistic) credit-card authorization company instead of going along with their ways and shooting ourselves in the foot.

» Patrick Sabbah

Kids and responsibility

In response to Melanie Kerridge's letter, "I, sad single mom" [July 24], may I suggest that we, as individuals and as a society, also begin to take more seriously the responsibility of having children.

Having children, however biologically "natural," is an option to be carefully considered and only undertaken if one is certain that he or she is prepared to care for the child - even in the face of obstacles like handicap, poverty or even divorce.

» Julie Lafford

Defending the WTO

Do you ever get the feeling that WTO activists are just kids who for racial reasons don't feel like they fit in in North America ["Mastering the info blitz," July 24]?

I don't think people are listening to them - it gets kind of boring watching immigrants work through their inferiority complexes with all their narrow-minded ranting and raving about the WTO being the root of all evil. Even when you take a moment to listen, you never hear anything that amounts to a constructive alternative to globalization. What the hell is wrong with consumer culture anyway?

» Matthew Buckley

Fix the SPCA

Montreal SPCA executive director Pierre Barnoti claims the cat population on the streets of Montreal is soaring, and he's right. Like he said recently on the CTV news, the problem hasn't been addressed in the past 10 years. That is exactly the number of years Barnoti has been in charge of the SPCA. For the past 20 years, the humane society has done nothing in terms of education regarding the well-being of pets in Montreal.

Pound contractors and SPCAs in Canada want us to think that it is less expensive to kill the alleged abandoned pets and homeless cats than low-cost sterilization. High-scale killing will only create empty niches to be filled immediately by more puppies and kittens. And money is the big factor here. On one end, cities pay pound contractors to kill what heartless producers are paid to manufacture at the other end. The vicious cycle must be stopped.

The economy of scale will be when the reproduction diminishes. We don't believe that licences for cats, which Mr. Barnoti seems to want established, will be the solution. Quebecers are fed up with taxation, and licences for dogs and cats are just that: more taxes. No services are given for such taxes; the system doesn't even assure the lost pet a return home because nobody cares to search for the owner. It is easier to put the responsibility on the owner to look for the lost pet and, after three days, kill the animal or sell it. Money is also a big factor here.

Those who have a little bit more money have homeless cats spayed and neutered at their own expense while Berger Blanc and SPCA gets the money and donations. We can thank Réseau secours animal and caring people like Johanne Husereau of Sphinx for the problem not being worse than it already is - all those girls roaming alleys feeding hungry cats and paying huge vet bills while the SPCA gets the donations and does nothing, even with a permanent vet on the premises. With a budget of $3.5-million, they surely can support all those humane groups mushrooming in Montreal, caring for the voiceless.

It had been known that the reason why shelters like the SPCA do not make public the fact that they kill practically all the animals brought to them is: donations would stop if donators knew. To our knowledge, only SPCA Montérégie is a no-kill shelter; their policy should be encouraged and commended.

The problem of "alleged abandoned" pets and homeless cats will be solved (a) when the lost pet gets better chances to return home; (b) when low-cost spay and neuter clinics open in this town; (c) when organizations like the SPCA put their donation money into mass education instead of their pockets and (d) when people turn to adoption of adult pets instead of specially manufactured puppies and kittens.

» Catherine Bégin, Researcher,
Lost and Found Pet Network

Corrections:

Record store clerk François Charette [People, July 17] produces under the name Phranteek, not Richie Hawtin! Also, on the July 17 Artsweek page, Ene-Liis Semper's show was incorrectly stated as running at the MAC, while it's at the Saidye Bronfman Centre (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine) until Sept. 7.

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