Shelter’s supporters deserve explanation
Ihave lived in Santa Fe for 28 years now and have been involved with our animal shelter for all that time. Over the years, there have been hundreds and hundreds of citizens here who have contributed time and significant money to create a center for our animals which, until now, was considered to be one of the best in the country.
We have also been blessed to receive a number of enormous donations from passionate animal supporters assuring that this large plan would come to fruition.
But what has happened to this shelter? Newspaper articles of late have told us the doors are locked and there is no longer “Roddey’s Rehab,” the part of the shelter where neglected and traumatized dogs could be totally rehabilitated and successfully adopted out.
And suddenly there are virtually no cats in the center, which, among other things, has put untenable stress on both the Española Animal Shelter and Felines and Friends.
Why has this all come to pass without the board’s sharing the details of this drastic change with all of us who have for so long championed and worked for the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society? This is wrong, and with all due respect, there is a huge population of animal advocates and donors who deserve a detailed explanation, and hopefully, a serious change.
Ali MacGraw Tesuque
New BLM rule demands attention
The Bureau of Land Management is proposing a new public lands rule that would, for the first time, require land managers to consider conservation on public lands on par with development of oil and gas, mining, grazing and other consumptive uses.
The rule will finally balance habitat conservation with these other important uses — extractive and commodity driven —that have taken place at the expense of wildlife and habitat. BLM lands are among the most ecologically important places in the nation, sustaining clean water, air, wildlife, agriculture and generations of people.
The new rule will not harm cattle grazing or existing rights to energy development. Rather, it will give habitat and wildlife conservation an equal chance. Read more on BLM’s website or at actnowforpubliclands.org.
You can attend a BLM-hosted public meeting at 5-7 p.m. Tuesday at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. NW in Albuquerque.
Charlotte Overby Santa Fe
Membership in the human race
Your choice to publish a letter (“Sex, not gender”) containing hate speech and misinformation is concerning. The author’s statement “nonbinary and transgender should be ridiculed out of existence” egregiously disregards that these identities are attached to people and could be considered eugenicist. This kind of rhetoric is centuries old. For misinformed readers, I offer this revision — transgender and nonbinary folks have full membership of the human race; pronouns are clearly not the central issue here.
I implore The New Mexican to issue a correction.
Cameron Mathis Santa Fe