Thursday, April 10, 2008

Animals 'R' Us

There was some strong reaction from animal rights activists to my Wednesday column. You'll be reading some of those letters in the Freeman soon.

Although no fake blood was thrown at my body (yet), some of the messages were very angry.

Some made sense.

I also thought some of them missed the point I was trying to make.

So I answered some of their letters, trying not to write "some" so much.

I attached a photo of my mean cat to some of my responses, since he's protective.




Some of them understood, but not because my cat is cute (however, I'm pretty sure Tiny's furry face helped some).

And we started a productive conversation, albeit on the wrong foot at first.

An area group invited me to an upcoming event, an information session with the spay and neuter mobile unit, taking place Sunday at 1 p.m., at Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption at 4628 Route 209, Accord.

The Ulster County First Spay/Neuter Mobile Unit -- which aims to enable the town shelters, pounds, rescue groups and low income individuals to have their animals spay or neuter and vaccinated -- is planning to soon travel to area towns.

So in its aim to help eliminate the hundreds of feral cats that reproduce in the cities and towns, the unit is looking for input to help service the communities of Ulster County and share ideas, information and enthusiasm about the project.

Oh, before you bring your pet, the unit wanted to make clear it will not be conducting surgery on Sunday.

For more information, call Jane at (845) 687-7619.


...
So we started a conversation, and the column some called "insensitive" served a purpose.

And I'm incredibly relieved I didn't write that I was eating chicken when I wrote the column.