Reader Viewpoint
Posted 7/9/03

Extension office site

in hands of U of M

To the Editor:

Due to budget cuts, the University of Minnesota Extension service is going through dramatic changes. By January 2004 there will no longer be county offices housing Extension Services; these services will be moving to 18-22 Regional Extension offices.

Mille Lacs County and the City of Princeton have both applied to become a Regional Extension office. That fate is now in the hands of the University. Mille Lacs County commissioners did endorse keeping a county office for 4-H and the Master Gardener's program. The county's 15 Master Gardeners gave over 500 hours of volunteer service to their communities in 2002.

Without a county office, 4-H as we know it in Mille Lacs County would cease to exist. Mille Lacs County 4-H has the largest per capita enrollment in northern Minnesota with 354 youth enrolled in the program and countless parents and volunteers who strive to make it the best youth development program around.

4-H also has outstanding community support in the county and we are very fortunate to work in cooperation with the Fair Board and Princeton Speedway. The foodstand that operates at the Speedway is run by 4-H.

4-Hers and their families work one to two races each season in the foodstand, learning work skills, volunteering and promoting 4-H. The proceeds from the foodstand help pay for bulletins, camp, county and state fair trips, scholarships, leader training and other programming.

Even though the Extension Service is changing, we are fortunate that 4-H will continue to thrive in Mille Lacs County and, most importantly, thank you to everyone who supports 4-H in the county.

Pat Braun

Mille Lacs County Extension Committee

4-H parent and volunteer

Consider lives of pets

when ³losing² them

To the Editor:

I am not one to write letters to the editor, but what happened at my house this morning was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. I will say my piece, step down off the soap box and be quiet again.

Having grown up on a dairy farm, I am regularly amazed by the unnecessary cruelty that humans inflict on animals.  Once again this year, just like pretty much every year since we moved to our home, someone disposed of a litter of unwanted kittens as they drove past. I'm sure these folks think that since we have out buildings on our property (we have 2.5 acres that used to be a farmstead), we have lots of dairy cattle and can feed, care for, and would welcome yet another litter of kittens. Well, folks, nothing could be further from the truth. 

Since we moved to our home 14 years ago, we have acquired virtually all of our pet cats over those years by this method.  We kept a couple of them and surrendered some of the others that were tame enough to catch.  The rest were wild and we could not catch them, so most of them have died of the elements, disease or on the highway. One of the cats we kept for many years became sick and we had her euthanized, and the other we had to surrender last spring because some of us have allergies and can no longer tolerate pets in our home.

This morning, when my son came home from work around 2:30 a.m., he found a kitten out in the storm by our house. He brought it into the garage, dried it off, gave it some water, and left us a note that it was there so we would check on it this morning. When I checked on this poor little creature, I patted it thinking it would respond, but it didn't. Since I was still not sure it was dead, I checked to see if rigor had begun to set in by lifting its head a bit by the scruff of its neck. It croaked at me, so I knew it was alive-but just barely. It could not move on its own power and was barely breathing. It was so skinny it was shocking. 

I left a list of suggestions for my sons to do to see if they can help it survive and went to work. I doubt if it will recover-time will tell. 

Before I backed my car out of my parking spot, I checked to see if all of my tires had air in them since I had to have a tire repaired yesterday afternoon. I saw no kittens near my car. I backed out of my parking spot, stopped to put the car into drive from reverse, and heard a clunk from under the car. A kitten the same size as the one in my garage raced like a cat out of you-know-where across my yard and into the neighbor's field. At least this one was livelier, but if we don't catch it, I question its chances of survival.  They appear to have just been barely weaned before being abandoned.

If we can manage to nurse this kitten back to life, it will be at our expense. Then we will have to pay the fee to surrender it to the Humane Society since the township in which I live does not have a contract with the Humane Society to take abandoned cats. I know this because I've paid this fee to surrender abandoned cats in the past. 

Yes, I know that people have been dumping unwanted litters for centuries. Yes, there are bigger issues that I could be concerned about-starving and abused children is just one of hundreds of such issues. But I just wonder what the people who are disposing of unwanted kittens this way are doing to and/or teaching their children when they do this. Perhaps if they cannot afford to be responsible and have their pet spayed or neutered, they should consider not having pets at all. This option is even less costly than abandoning unwanted litters.

It is my hope that the people who inflicted this harm on these kittens reads this, though I know it is unlikely. I doubt that they will care much, even if they do. I just wish they had considered how miserable they were making these kittens' lives before they dropped them off.

There. I've said my piece and voiced my opinions on the subject. Too bad it won't do any good. I expect we will have to do this again around October or November when it's really cold and the kittens have even less chance of survival.

My son just called. The kitten died.

Wendy Noack

Milaca