Race questions No sanctuary

Given recent events, the following questions arise.

What does police brutality have to do with racism? Is police brutality limited to only black criminals? Are there instances of police brutality toward white criminals? Have the people criticizing police participated in a “police-ride-along” to experience what a cop faces day to day and what it is like to try and subdue a violent criminal? Where do the majority of violent crimes occur?

What does slavery have to do with police brutality or systemic racism? How can systemic racism exist when there are so many affirmative action programs impacting public-sector job hiring, small business contracts, college admissions, school expulsion, federal grants, etc.?

Do rioting and looting improve racial relations? Does allowing rioting and looting to go unchecked improve racial relations or does it embolden criminals to continue their unlawful ways and to resist arrest? Patti Lee

Las Vegas

Having visited a real tiger sanctuary many times, I feel compelled to address illusionist Jay Owenhouse’s misuse of the word “sanctuary” when referring to his tiger cages (July 22 Review-journal).

True animal sanctuaries do not buy, sell, breed or trade animals. They do not stuff tigers into small transport cages and make then perform for profit. Big cats in true sanctuaries are provided a lifelong home and care and are taken off-site only for medical purposes. And they do not allow the public to come into direct contact with wild animals of any age.

Mr. Owenhouse did not rescue his tigers — he bought them — and he does not provide sanctuary for them. When in Las Vegas, Mr. Owenhouse’s tigers will live on a 30-by-30 cement slab with no grass or natural ground for them to walk on.

Hardly a sanctuary.

Sanctuary is a buzz word too often used to whitewash animal exploitation and dupe the public. For Jay Owenhouse, calling his tiger cage a sanctuary is just one more illusion — and not a very good one at that.

Tigers are dangerous, explosive and unpredictable with instincts to kill. They are not props or performers but predators that don’t belong on stage.

Linda Faso

Las Vegas

Tigers are dangerous, explosive and unpredictable with instincts to kill. They are not props or performers.