Eugene weekly., January 27, 2011, Page 5, Image 5

letters
TO THE EDITOR
EXPLOITING PETS
I am writing in response to the last
section of your Slant (1/13). In it, the
editor describes a situation in which an
attorney’s concern for the welfare of a
puppy owned by a homeless person is
called “harassment” by another Eugene
citizen. The issue of homeless people
having pets has been bothering me for
as long as I’ve lived in Eugene. I’ve seen
many kittens strapped to backpacks
so they cannot run around like normal
kittens. People are drawn to pet them and
the homeless person then gets attention
(and often money). This exploitation of
animals interferes with them having a
normal life.
I have wanted to cry seeing kittens
treated this way. I wonder what happens
to these kittens once they become
“inconvenient.” A couple once walked
by my apartment and the woman said she
needed help because she was “trying to
feed her new kitten.” I gave her my whole
bag of cat food. She hesitated, not even
saying thanks, and said, “Uh, we need to
eat too. Do you have money?”
I’ve been asked for money for dog
food as well, and I just want to scream at
people. If they can’t feed their dog, they
should give it to someone who can — but
that would be “harassment” in some eyes.
True, a poor person might care for an
animal better than a rich one, but a person
with no shelter for themselves or ability
to reliably get food even for themselves
should reconsider having a pet. I’m asked
to pay for the meals of homeless people and
their cats and dogs. Expressing concern
for the animal welfare is harassment?
A dog might lend a lot of comfort to a
homeless person sleeping under a bridge,
but good pet owners take care of their
animals. To exploit a pet to assist in your
own survival should be considered a form
of animal abuse.
Laura Paxton
Eugene
WHO DECIDES?
The Slant (1/13) about Steve
Cornacchia’s apparent harassment of a
homeless pet owner really boils my blood.
This is what I know from my own life:
I am lucky enough to say that I have a
home to live in and a job to go to, and the
resources to care for several companion
animals. In my case, I am able to provide
high-end food, routine health care, and
unexpected expenses.
I love my animals very much, and I
believe that they love me; regardless, my
relationship to them keeps me connected
to something that is outside of myself.
They give me some “one” to care for and
on some days a reason to get out of bed. I
fi nd it almost impossible to believe that
people who are homeless cannot enjoy
the same relationship with their pets
that I enjoy with mine. They may not be
fi nancially able to provide for their pet
in the way that I am able to, but that in
no way discounts the mutually benefi cial
relationship that exists between pet and
guardian.
If it is all just a matter of degree, who
gets to decide the benchmark? Isn’t a
puppy living with a homeless person who
does the best he or she can to look after
it, better off than a puppy in a euthanasia
chamber because no one wants it? I think
it is, and I also think that the sooner
we recognize, and act on, how we can
help each other rather than how we can
make ourselves feel better by criticizing
someone else, the better off we will be.
Victoria A. Williams
Eugene
LCC FALLING SHORT
Regarding “Tutor Time” (cover story,
1/3): What do we get from under-funded
education? More struggling, fewer chances
to make it in life? More prostitution, more
crime, more violence? I believe that it is
all of the above.
I live in the middle of Whiteaker,
arguably one of Eugene’s lower-income
areas, and while I see a lot of awesome
modded fi sh-fi n cars; I also see a lot
of desperate homeless teenagers. If
education’s goal is to prepare our children
for the world, we are falling painfully
short. The LCC campus is fl ooded with
new students at the beginning of each term,
who drop out after two or three weeks but
collect their fi nancial aid anyway (which
Lane has fi gured out, so don’t try it).
Looking around at LCC’s clearly
underfunded main campus, I can’t help
but wonder: Are they dropping out with
the sole purpose of collecting the fi nancial
aid, or do we have a bunch of kids who
can’t hack it even at the community
college level? I don’t know, but I really
hope someone follows up and gets the
numbers. Maybe seeing something more
concrete would kick the powers that be
into action.
Rachel Hooper
Eugene
POSITIVE PIT PRESS
I cannot express how grateful I am to
EW for giving positive press to the pit bull.
The media really needs a boogie man to
sell its wares and pit bulls have become
a target in the past decade, resulting in
people who do not know this breed to have
a skewed view.
Case in point: The very same day
that the positive article was released in
the Weekly, there was an incident in Mt.
Vernon, N.Y. where a man was mauled
by two Rottweilers and a Wheaton
terrier. Although the article clearly says
that the dogs in question were not pit bulls,
the headline declared “Pit bulls maul …”
because really, most people read only the
headline. This is a very common devious
“marketing strategy” that is perpetrated
on a daily basis across America. At the
end of the day, they changed it to “Dogs
maul …” but the damage was done. I read
the comment section and everybody was
talking about pit bulls.
A study a few years ago found that
this misreporting happens 33 percent
of the time. I’ve seen similar inaccurate
reporting in The Register-Guard. Thank
you, EW, for being a step above, it is much
appreciated!
On a side note, the website dogsbite.
org is really formed by a group whose
expressed purpose is to ban pit bulls in
the United States. They do not report
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EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 27, 2011 5