Letters to the Editor
Volume VII Number 10
March 11-17, 1999
Please Spay, Neuter Now
Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:
Spring is almost here, and the birds and bees will soon be at work. Please spay and neuter your dogs and cats, puppies and kittens now to prevent unwanted litters.
In 1998, the Tri-County Animal Shelter (serving Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties) handled 12,330 animals. Of those, 6,173 or 50 percent were euthanized, primarily because there are too many dogs and cats born unwanted or discarded because they are no longer convenient to own. By spaying or neutering your pet, you are helping minimize the homeless population.
The American Veterinary Medical Association endorses spaying/neutering for dogs and cats as early as eight weeks. Many veterinarians prefer to wait until four to six months, when vaccinations are completed and the animal is stronger and better able to withstand the anesthesia.
Sterilization offers many behavioral and long-term health benefits. Females’ risk of pregnancy is spared, and the chance of mammary cancer almost completely eliminated, as are uterine infections and cancer and ovarian cancer.
Males’ aggressive behavior is tempered, and the risk of prostate problems, rectal tumors and testicular cancers eliminated.
To schedule your pets to be spayed or neutered, please contact your veterinarian or any of the humane organizations for information about discounts.
Even if you find good homes for each of your pet’s offspring, for every one of those, another must be euthanized at an animal shelter in its place. Thank you for having your pet spayed or neutered.
-Carol Crane, President,
Calvert Animal Welfare League
Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:
Thank you for the wonderful article “Rock in the Rough? This Prize-Winning Rockfish Is a Diamond” [Dock of the Bay Feb. 25-March 3]. I appreciate all the supportive articles you print about the Maryland seafood industry. I would like to invite your readers to receive a free copy of the 1999 award-winning Maryland Rockfish Celebration Cooking Contest brochure. In Maryland, call 888/841 5828. Outside of Maryland, the number is 410/841-5820 or write to: Rockfish Celebration, 50 Harry S Truman Parkway, Annapolis, MD 21401.
I hope many of your readers will enter the 3rd Annual Contest next January!
-Noreen L. Eberly, Maryland Dept. Agriculture, Seafood Marketing
For the Birds
Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:
New Bay Times is for the birds! How else can you explain three excellent articles on bird life in Bay country in a single edition [March 4-10].
Through the words and paintings of John W. Taylor, we learned how to increase our own powers of observation about the natural world around us. M.L. Faunce’s piece on singing birds and singing clocks is timeless. And Carol Glover’s reflection “The Only Good Gull,” reminds us that in birds, as in life, beauty sometimes comes with a burden. While we fussy humans devise ways to minimize the nuisances of birds and animals that visit our homes, we can also ponder a world without them.
Thanks for helping your readers ponder all things great and small, feathered and furry, green and growing in Chesapeake country through your Earth Journal and fine articles such as these.
-D.C. Bourne, Churchton