Letters and comments for July 1, 2011

A way to ID roaming dogs  

To the Editor:

In regards to the item in the News of Record complaining of someone shooting a dog with a paintball gun. The incident was listed as animal abuse. I have to disagree.

I have shot several dogs with paintballs. When you don’t know who the owner is, that pretty bright spot on the animal is not to punish, but to notify the owner that the dog was loose and in unwanted territory. I have never had to shoot the dog a second time as the owner apparently got the message that it could have been a much more severe projectile. The paintball merely stings and there is no lasting damage. The real animal abuse is not to contain the animal and subject it to being hit.

Several years ago I purposely purchased a paintball gun for the express purpose of hazing dogs from my yard. The idea was not mine but that of a previous animal control officer. Paint on a dog allows the officer to positively identify continual offenders. It solved my problem.

The thing to remember is that a dog out of control is a dog in trouble, and possibly the owner also.

Gene Erwin

La Grande

Helping New Mexico

To the Editor:

I’d like to represent New Mexico in thanking the U.S. Forest Service and the families of La Grande for sending the Union Hotshots to fight our blazes here in the southwest region.

Tonight those men and women are scratching line, falling trees and back burning in an extremely hazardous scene in Los Alamos. They are trying to save our homes, forests and some very sensitive national security sites.

We won’t forget.

Pat Wright

Taos Ski Valley, N.M.