Ban charreadas and rodeo events in SC County
– animal abuse
Dear Editor,
By banning the traveling shows, circuses and rodeos that feature
the suffering of animals as
”
entertainment
”
, Santa Clara County legislators will finally have the ability
to protect animals from lives that are filled with pain and
misery.
Ban charreadas and rodeo events in SC County – animal abuse
Dear Editor,
By banning the traveling shows, circuses and rodeos that feature the suffering of animals as “entertainment”, Santa Clara County legislators will finally have the ability to protect animals from lives that are filled with pain and misery.
Except for the short intervals of time when they are “performing” for the crowds, circus animals spend their entire lives in small, barren cages. Animal trainers use bullhooks and electric prods to beat, shock, and whip circus animals to make them perform “tricks” that make no sense to them. Unrelieved physical and psychological confinement breaks the spirit and the mind. Injury, disease, loneliness and suffering – this is life for a circus animal. An untold number of circus animals become trophies for high-paying hunters in the highly illegal and highly immoral “canned hunts” – shot to death in their cages.
A rodeo animal’s life fares no better. For rodeo events that feature barbaric displays of inhumanity, electric prods, spurs, and flank straps are used to provoke and enrage normally docile animals. Horses and cows are prodded with electrical “hotshots” causing intense pain and confusion. Calves roped while running routinely have their necks snapped by the lasso. The slaughterhouse is the last stop for the discarded rodeo animal – animals so extensively injured that the only areas in which their skin is attached to their flesh are the head, neck, legs and belly.
The time is way overdue to put an end to rodeos and circuses – these traveling spectacles of animal abuse. We must stop spending our time and money subsidizing this misery. We must take a look within ourselves and know that we are better than this.
Please contact all of the county supervisors and ask them to support the ordinance: Blanca Alvarado 299-5020, bl*************@********ov.org; Don Gage 299-5010, do******@********ov.org; Liz Kniss 299-5050 Li*******@********ov.org; Pete McHugh 299-5030 pe**********@********ov.org; Ken Yeager 299-5040, ke********@********ov.org
Evon Dumesnil, Morgan Hill
A really whacky idea to run freight trains on high-speed rail lines
Dear Editor,
Its preposterous to try to run freight on high-speed rail tracks. High-speed lines are designed specifically for lightweight trains to travel at 186 to 220 mph over the lines.
If you were to unleash big lumbering freight trains on highly maintained and manicured track maintenance costs would skyrocket from the excessive wear and tear caused by freight trains –not to mention the fact that the running gear on freight trains is only capable of 70 mph, anybody can see that you will have major operational conflicts when you have trains running 220 mph and trains running 70 mph on the same tracks.
The only non-passenger trains allowed on high-speed rail are mail and express shipping trains, which use equipment identical to the passenger version with the seats removed and the windows covered. The only way freight could run on a California high-speed rail line would be if it were something along the lines of a USPS/UPS/Fed Ex train that uses specialized bullet trains such as the LaPoste TGVs that haul mail at the same speeds as the regular TGVs.
Seth Howell, Gilroy
Puzzle fun at the library a great day thanks to awesome volunteers
Dear Editor,
 Sunday, Feb. 3, was an amazing day at the Morgan Hill Library: More than 300 puzzle lovers from all over the Bay Area – and even from southern California and out of state – came together for a fun afternoon of crosswords, Sudoku and all sorts of other puzzles and games.
Silicon Valley Puzzle Day was presented by the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library, and we want to thank every one who helped to make it such a success. With more than 70 volunteers, it’s impossible to thank everyone by name, but please know that your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Many volunteers went above and beyond: Rosanne Macek and Maona Grabscheid of the Morgan Hill Library spent their day off volunteering to make sure everything went smoothly. Puzzle Day committee members – Susan Brazelton, Marty Cheek, Leigh Donaldson, Yvonne Duckett, Carol O’Hare and Vicky Reader – logged countless hours over several months making sure every detail was in place for the big day.
We also greatly appreciate the contributions of the organizations who supported us financially or with in-kind donations, as well as those that participated in our marketplace.
If you missed Puzzle Day, you missed a sneak peek at New York Times crossword puzzles provided by Will Shortz, youth division crossword puzzles created by Mark Diehl, handcrafted tournament puzzles by current Sudoku champ Thomas Snyder, who also presented a workshop, and other puzzle-themed workshops by Byron Walden (who also served as our chief judge) and Andrea Michaels, crossword puzzle constructors, Ganesh TS, cryptic crossword expert, Bryan Conrey of AIM on killer Sudoku, and Alexandra Morris of the Alzheimer’s Association on maintaining your brain. Many thanks to all of them; they added invaluable expertise, excitement and interest to the event.
We hope to see even more of you next year for our third annual Silicon Valley Puzzle Day. It will be held on Feb. 8, 2009 – and no, that’s not Super Bowl Sunday!
Photos and more information about the event are online at
