Letters to the editor for Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014

Animal Shelter staff not given fair shake

The Carson City Animal Shelter staff continue to be beaten up without support from the city for doing its job well. It’s time to explain the reality of the dedication, hard work and care the staff at the shelter puts into its jobs.

As a volunteer for the shelter, I can attest that these existing employees go above and beyond to make sure our community has a safe, caring, and successful shelter for our animals.

What I know about these employees is, they commit more than their time and skills to provide a safe environment to our homeless pets. They oversee a volunteer program, host adoption events and provide a key link with local businesses, animal owners, and the successful Puppies Up for Parole program.

What’s going to happen to the employees, staff, volunteers and Puppies Up for Parole program at the current shelter once it transfers over to the Nevada Humane Society? What’s going to happen to the animals that the residents don’t want to adopt? The current staff is losing its jobs. It’s as if it’s being punished instead of being acknowledged for the labor of love it’s put into the animal shelter.

If you have benefited from the staff’s dedication at the shelter, I challenge you to speak up.

Let’s join together and share with the community the reality of the huge accomplishments the Carson City Animal Shelter has achieved. We’ve already heard from those who are upset, now let’s hear from those of us who have benefited.

Anna Carroll

Carson City

Don’t buy pleas for a margins tax

I am brought to mind of the proposed margins tax, reading this publication on Sept. 14. Tesla again in the news now raises the concern of one social-minded legislator for the Washoe County School District in a state accused of already underfunding their efforts. Then comes the report of children here illegally who are somehow the responsibility of the Department of Education.

The proponents of their misguided front will doubtless use these as arguments for, but do not be deceived. This is an emotional plea to your tender mercies and will do nothing to enhance the education of your children.

“The DOE is a financial black hole for which no amount of money is ever enough,” said former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, because it is off mission.

Its task is to educate the citizen children of this country. It is not its to feed or provide day-care to children of parents who cannot afford them. It is not to care for or educate children of foreigners who managed themselves across Central America and Mexico unescorted to end up on our doorstep. Neither is it for it to indoctrinate, though it surely does.

To continue to over-fund this atrocity of a department is both financially and socially irresponsible. How, in a country drowning in debt, can we afford to shoulder the burdens of others? And how is one to learn to stand on their own if they are never made to do so? Bad for business. Bad for America. Don’t buy it.

Kelly Jones

Carson City

Grandma proud of grandson, SPCA

To the lady who jumped out of her car, tied her spayed, fat, healthy cat to a tree and placed a caged rat on the grass next to the cat at Sonoma Park, then hurried back to her car and drove away, shame on you.

There are a ton of dogs that run in that park and that poor cat would have had no chance. To the lady on the other end of the phone at animal control who said they would not take the cat and to just turn it loose to fend for itself and if it got hurt or ran over, “oh well,” shame on you.

To the Reno and Carson SPCA who helped us place the cat in a safe home, kudos and appreciation.

To my grandson and his friend who rescued the cat (and the rat) and worked hard to find it a safe home, I am really proud of you.

Judy Smith

Carson City

Ode To Nevada At 150 Years

Sesquicentennial, it’s so hard to say

But State of Nevada, this is your day

You may have had a checkered past

That controversy won’t be your last

Bugsy Segal brought us the famous Flamingo Hotel

Hughes made gaming corporate, we remember it well

Mayor Oscar and Joe Conforte, our history do liven

Out here in the west, there’s still Hof and Cliven

Our desert prison hosts O.J. and more

Nevada justice just closes the door

Virginia City boasts Mark Twain and silver mining

So many looked there for their silver cloud lining

Mackey and Bowers and the Sutro tunnel

Out of the ground their fortunes did funnel

And still today in the town to the east

Elko is now the mining beast

Cowboy poetry also drifts through the air

Lamoille and the Rubies draw “awes” when you’re there

The fight remains on for which town was the first

Genoa or Dayton, stop by, quench your thirst

There are beautiful lakes ... Meade, Pyramid and Tahoe

And majestic Sierras all covered with white snow

The deserts stretch out in so many directions

For outdoor fun, there’s so many selections

There are 50 great states in our wonderful nation

With cities and towns, even farms and plantations

There’s CA and PA, TX in our country

But we’ll always be the one they call NV

Laurel Stadler

Carson City