Don’t glorify keeping animals captive
To the editor:
In response to the June 12 story, "Dolphin habitat gets new inhabitant":
Eleven of the 16 dolphins housed at The Mirage have died since it opened in 1990. This is a staggeringly high mortality rate. But The Mirage has always displayed little concern for the health or well-being of its animal props.
Resort officials, including Siegfried & Roy, ignored pleas to release Gilda, an elephant who was also kept at The Mirage, to a sanctuary where she could have lived the remainder of her life in peace and enjoy the company of other elephants. She died ailing and alone. Tigers at the casino are kept in a concrete display pen, unable to escape the onslaught of thousands of people who traipse by daily.
It's time for The Mirage to stop gambling with animals' lives.
Lisa Wathne
NORFOLK, VA.
THE WRITER IS A "CAPTIVE EXOTIC ANIMAL SPECIALIST" WITH PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS.
Sucked dry
To the editor:
You sure sound confident in your June 11 editorial, "Lake Mead dried up?" You apparently believe that everything will turn out peachy regarding Las Vegas' and Lake Mead's future water supply. It also seems as if you haven't been reading the articles about water-supply concerns that have been published in your own newspaper and USA Today.
-- If the lake's surface continues to lower, a "third straw" will have to be quickly pursued to continue to suck water from the lake.
-- Lake Mead is now at its lowest level since the 1960s, when it lowered precipitously during the initial filling of Lake Powell.
-- It is now believed there was a 20 percent to 25 percent overestimation of the "average" Colorado River flow volume back when the dam systems and the affected states' allocations were calculated in the 1930s.
-- From Utah to the Sierra Nevada, snow-depth checkers this April spoke of grassy hillsides at locations where they normally find 4-foot averages in early April.
A recent USA Today front-page story noted that California and Nevada just recorded their driest June-to-May year since 1924. The southeastern United States is drier than at any time in recorded history, with Lake Okeechobee drying up.
Predictions about Lake Mead drying up may indeed not come to pass. However, in my opinion, your editorial constitutes an unnecessarily cavalier dismissal of an extremely serious issue facing all the southwestern United States.
Bob coffman
LAS VEGAS
Anti-immigration
To the editor:
William Rusher's column of June 8 is an example of the extreme nativist, anti-immigration language used by the bullies who have derailed a compromise immigration bill in the U.S. Senate. While ignoring ample evidence that immigration provides economic benefits for all Americans, too many politicians are pandering to the hate-filled messages coming from a vocal minority.
That this minority controls a party should be of grave concern to all Americans.
One point remains perfectly clear: The existing immigration system is fundamentally broken. It has exiled millions of taxpaying workers into legal limbo. It has divided mothers from sons, fathers from daughters, and brothers from sisters. It gives license to unscrupulous employers to swindle their workers.
It is morally and fundamentally unacceptable for this Congress to fail to address this situation. We should thank Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for his leadership on this difficult debate, and encourage him to continue working to create a system that will discourage unauthorized immigration, reunite families, preserve our nation's basic civil liberties and bring the undocumented out of the shadows.
We must also scold Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., for aligning himself with the worst demagogues on this national debate and voting against a Senate vote on immigration reform. He also introduced amendments to the reform bill that would deny immigrants legally working and living in the United States from receiving government benefits for which they pay taxes.
Hundreds of millions of Americans, myself included, are the children and grandchildren of immigrants. We must remember and celebrate our heritage as this debate continues. In that spirit, we ask Congress to resume consideration of comprehensive immigration reform, seek workable solutions to these policy questions and reject the venomous messages of the anti-immigrant extremists.
A.J. McCLURE
LA VEGAS
THE WRITER IS SOUTHERN NEVADA DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE OF NEVADA.
On the border
To the editor:
Why build a fence to separate the United States from Mexico? If you build a fence 10 feet high, they'll use a 15-foot high ladder. Why don't we just annex Mexico?
I believe Mexico would see this as a win-win situation. They could become another of our states. They could be called Americo. We could make part of Americo a penal colony. We could have one common language -- English. All border patrols and barriers could be eliminated.
I might be making light of this idea, but I think it could be the answer to the never-ending border problem we have with Mexico.
JOHN TOMINSKY
LAS VEGAS
