Peta

SPCA myths To the editor: I feel compelled to respond to the letter from Nancy Yeakle of Second Chance Rescue. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003, the Humane Society of Washington County admitted 4,832 animals. In that same period of time 1,263 were adopted, and 2,787 were euthanized. Yeakle commented that "it certainly was much easier to euthanize than adopt. " Euthanization is never "easy," and to accept that comment as truth is grossly unfair to all the people who love and care for our animals.

Editor's Note: Tim Rowland is on vacation. While he's away, some of his favorite columns are running again. This column ran on Nov. 28, 2000. Welcome to the second week of Car Season. Yes, I said Car Season. Because it's come to my attention through my powers of deduction and infiltration of the Bambino cervine crime syndicate, that humans aren't the only ones who consciously bag game for sport. I got suspicious several years ago when I noticed that, beginning in mid- to late November, the number of deer-car collisions escalates dramatically.

Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening will be in Washington County for about two hours Wednesday to tour proposed sites for a $13.4 million University System of Maryland, Hagerstown center. [cont. from front page ] Glendening is scheduled to spend about 30 minutes at each site. He will be at Allegheny Power's donated site at Friendship Technology Park at 3 p.m., and at the city-offered Baldwin House Complex in downtown Hagerstown at 4 p.m. The tours are not open to the public.

Every movement seeking attention goes through its kooky-crazy phase on its way to becoming mainstream. Environmentalists chained themselves to trees; little-known political candidates walked across the state; suffragettes and war activists got themselves arrested; PETA put nude women in cages; and McDonald's started selling salad. So I suppose we shouldn't raise too many eyebrows at belly dancers for health care. Advocating for a national, single-payer health care system, belly dancers performed outside U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's Martinsburg, W.Va.

shappell@herald-mail.com LEITERSBURG - Thanks to the efforts put into an October fund-raiser by a local high school student and her mother, cats and dogs may soon be able to breathe easier amid catastrophe. Smithsburg High School student Rachel Bibbee, along with her mother, Lynn Bibbee, have organized a family bingo night for Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. at Bingo Island in Hagerstown. Proceeds are to be used by Washington County's 27 fire departments to purchase animal oxygen masks/respirators that will be used on pets during fire rescues.

Ice cream recipes can come out of left field, as did the bacon ice cream a "Top Chef" reality show contestant made with liquid nitrogen. And then they can come out of deep left field, as in PETA's request last month that a popular commercial ice cream company use human breast milk in it's ice cream instead of cow's milk. But the truth is, you're in good company if you like your ice cream plain. Vanilla is the most popular flavor in the U.S., according to International Dairy Foods Association, a Washington D.C.-based trade group.

“A reduced federal budget would be easy to achieve. Find the right percentage amount and cut everyone that amount. The Republicans, however, are pursuing the route of using their hit list. Do you like clean air and water? They don't. Do you think certain business elements require oversight? They don't. Their financing overlords are playing the tune they dance to. The party of Richard Nixon lives.” - Boonsboro “What is with all these Christmas lights this year? Don't get me wrong, I really like to see them, but since they were put up at Halloween, I'm kind of tired of looking at them now. The ones at City Park are beautiful.

“This is to the person or persons who stole the road sign from the Indian Springs Road and Lanes Run Road over the weekend. The Indian Springs sign also had a memorial for a veteran — that happened to be my dad — bolted onto it, and how apropos of you to pick the Fourth of July weekend to do your dastardly deed, on a weekend that should be for all military personnel. If you need the road sign, so be it, but please return the veteran’s (memorial).” — Indian Springs area “I see in the paper that Congressman Roscoe Bartlett is going to run for his 11th term in Congress.

"Hi, Mail Call readers. Has it ever occurred to you that these prisons are full of cowards? They use a gun, knife or gang to commit a crime. Thank you, bye. " "Hi, Mail Call, on the subject of smoking, I thought this was a free country for all Americans. At least that's what my husband fought and died for in World War II. Freedom for those to smoke, freedom for those who don't care to smoke or anything else we want to do under the Constitution, however that certainly changed. Now I really understand what the term discrimination means.