February 5, 2005

disgruntled commissioners could direct some of the civility they're calling for toward a Rules on traps are ridiculous

On a recent weekend, Ruby, a Jack Russell Terrier was walking with her owner along a path at the Denman Wildlife Refuge (Area), and the next minute she was in the jaws of trap, that reportedly was legally set to kill otters, muskrats and raccoons. Law officials who responded said that the traps are legal! Please know that I have never in all my years of being an animal activist have I heard trapping on refuge grounds. What is a refuge but a place for animals to be safe and observe by the general public? Things like this tend to get brushed under the carpet in hopes that everyone will forget. This is such a tragedy and words just don't express how dismayed I am about the lax the laws in this area are for animal protection.

We would like to ensure that this never happens again to another Ruby, or any other animal. And one might think of the fact that it might have been a child that ventured into the brush ... then what would people say and do!

Denise Shannon
Eagle Point

Tidings doesn't follow its policy

On Friday, Jan. 28, the Tidings ran an article on the top of the front page about the resignation of the obviously disgruntled chairman of Ashland's Forest Lands Commission. This is news? People resign from commissions all the time and there's nary a mention. The supposed newsworthiness of this resignation is that the current chairman doesn't want to work with Cate Hartzell, the city councilor whom our mayor has designated as liaison to the commission. The chairman cites the usual mantra to smear Cate, that she slows the public process and makes productivity difficult. In other words, she asks too many questions and doesn't abide by the "business as usual or shut up" way of doing things. This same tactic was used during the recent campaign, but it obviously didn't work since Cate won reelection by such a wide margin.

Then the very next day, the Tidings' editorial decried smear campaigns not only nationally, but at the local level. If the Tidings' editor is so sensitive to these practices, why did he allow such a mean spirited attack on the front page of this supposedly objective publication?

Maybe the resigning chairman and other city councilor whom they are intent on defaming, and maybe the Tidings could practice its own editorial policy when it comes to "news" reporting. We'd all be better off.

Alice Hardesty
Ashland