Vic and Lou are way off on...

Vic and Lou are way off on feral cats

The Feb. 20 article, “A looming catastrophe” by Vic Leipzig and

Lou Murray is so remarkably out of touch with current knowledge and

practices regarding feral cats that it would almost be quaint if it

weren’t so dangerously misinformed and passively fatalistic.

Here is what Lou, or anyone in a similar situation, should do:

1. Live trap “Ghost” and her consort and take them to be fixed at

Animal Birth Control in Lomita or any other low cost spay/neuter

clinic.

2. Return them to the wild.

3. Provide regular feedings of food and water in a safe location.

4. Congratulate yourself on joining the new century.

In doing so, Lou will have accomplished several very important

things:

1. No more caterwauling.

2. No more feral kittens.

3. No more hungry cats that need to hunt to survive.

4. A small step in preserving the environment of which feral cats

are, and will remain, a part.

Many millions more birds are killed each year by loss of habitat,

in-flight collisions with multiplying radio, cell phone and microwave

towers and poisoning from pesticides than all the feral cats in the

world could account for. Cats are rodent specialists, and while birds

can be targets of opportunity for a hungry cat, they are usually too

much work to waste energy on while the old “Cat and Mouse” game is a

low energy watch, wait and listen strategy.

As for the quality of a feral cats life being as Hobbsian as

implied, it needn’t be so with the help of potential friends like Vic

and Lou.

FRANCIS BATTISTA

Director of Rescue Outreach

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Proposition 50 money should not buy mesa

It is hard to understand how readers like Peter Clark “Prop 50

money should Buy mesa” (Mailbag, March 13) can submit an article

arguing that the state should buy the Bolsa Chica mesa.

We face a phenomenal deficit and Peter Clark wants to use any

money available to buy a bird sanctuary. He states “we all backed

Proposition 50 for that reason.” I have news for Clark; Proposition

50 just passed by 1% in our area. The people that voted for the Clean

Water Act did just that, voted for clean water, not to deprive

property owners from developing their land so a flood plain can be

created for migrating birds.

If this money must be spent let it be used as intended; improve

our water quality not a playground for a few self-centered

environmentalists.

BOB POLKOW

Huntington Beach

Planes going into Long Beach are a nuisance

Thank you for publishing your article on the Long Beach Airport

noise problem (March 13). I live directly under the arrival flight

path on Hawaii Lane in Huntington Beach. The arriving flights are

definitely a problem for my family and the neighborhood that I live

in. I have a 3-year-old daughter and a 3-month-old daughter. I arrive

home from work around 5 p.m. and within minutes a commercial jet,

usually UPS or Fed-Ex, flies low overhead and scares my 3-year-old

who has come outside to greet me.

These same jets also create enough noise to disturb my 3-month-old

daughter’s sleeping schedule. We can hear a loud screeching noise as

the planes slow down or make sharp turns right overhead. I am a land

surveyor and I measure distances. I believe that planes violate the

altitude limit on a regular basis, not on “rare occasion.” Please

keep me informed of any news related to this problem, or of any

protest meetings that I could be involved with.

ROBERT W. SEIDEL

Huntington Beach

At times the airliners come over so low that I worry that they

could collide with helicopters flying in the area.

KAY SERAPHINE

Huntington Beach

There’s no problem with the airport

We have lived in Huntington Beach for 40 years and are under the

flight path for Long Beach Airport. There has never been a problem

with noise or planes flying to low. I enjoy watching the planes when

I am outside. I feel if people do not like living in this area they

should move to where they feel more comfortable.

JACQUELINE HANVEY

Huntington Beach

Drop the fireworks discussion already

No, the city should not bring the question of fireworks on the

beach back to the table. All they have to do is check the last two

years of the police records when they did have it there. I was a

witness to all that and it was terrible. It was like riots, fights,

drinking. They couldn’t control it no matter how many extra policemen

they can hire, there is not enough money. It is a free situation,

anyone can come from anywhere an there wasn’t any control on that. It

wasn’t because of the fog that they stopped it, it was because it was

out of control and it wasn’t any different than the riots Downtown in

the past.

LORETTA WOLFE

Huntington Beach

When the fireworks were at the beach there were times when most of

the display was lost in the fog. The money required for a beach

display in 2003 could be lost in a fog bank. Spend 2003 at Disneyland

and in 2004 the grass will be greener.

PATTIE ANDERSON

Huntington Beach

Council should rethink fireworks

I think that it is ludicrous to cancel fireworks and think we

should have them at the beach. The City Council should go back and

rethink this issue.

MIKE WOLFF

Huntington Beach

Definitely, they should rethink the fireworks. I think that is

just something that our city has just really had good success with

and I think it should continue.

CHERYL JUMONVILLE

Huntington Beach

I am a firm believer of the fireworks, I think it would be a great

thing. I just saw the fireworks in San Clemente for their 75th

anniversary and there was no problems at all, it was just a great

show, a lot of enthusiasm. Let’s move forward with this and make this

city a growing city instead of worrying what happened in the past.

CAROLE HOFFMAN

Huntington Beach