This year let the experts handle the fireworks
These last 14+ months have been tough.
Fourth of July celebrations are different in towns this year.
California cities that permit the sale and use of safe and sane fireworks continuously change. Check before firing!
Never use fireworks or drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol.
A drunken driver hit me in 1992 and damaged my gait, hearing and speech. If a drunk can not handle a car, imagine one with a firework?
Illegal fireworks must stop.
These unexpected booms sound like a bomb! It frightens children, pets are terrified and people with PTSD suffer.
Also, California is in a drought. Everything is bone dry and dangerously flammable.
In May, 41 counties out of the state’s 58 are in a drought emergency (like Lake County). Fire danger escalates because dry fields offer fuel to a wayward firework.
Let the experts handle the fireworks and drive sober.
—Lori Martin, Tracy, California
Roundup of Mustangs on Federal Lands must stop.
Four years ago the investigative journal, ProPublica, published an expose of how mustangs are annually rounded up on federal lands. They detailed how some of these horses are adopted out. Many are shipped to holding pens, where they languish at taxpayer expense of $6 million per year. Another segment will see their existence fall through the cracks, due to lack of completing the mandatory paperwork. And while some of these horses will find good homes, many will remain unaccounted for.
Most of these “unaccounted for” horses end up in huge double decker trailers, known as the “slaughterhouse pipeline” and transported to Canada and Mexico. Here they are savagely abused during the slaughter process. Some die in route, due to horrendous travel conditions, (no water or trampled by other terrified horses in confined spaces).
On June 25, 2021 the Washington Post published an article: “We Have Too Many Wild Horses, But This Is No Way To Thin The Herd.” This article reiterates the abuse imposed on our American mustangs and publicly asks the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management to permanently cease mustang roundups. The Washington Post explains the motivating factor for these roundups is the well-funded demands of the cattle lobby, who seek inexpensive public lands for grazing. This is the first time a national newspaper has investigated and asked for the federal government to end mustang roundups.
Therefore, it provides an opportunity for a national response. The article ends by asking Americans to contact the federal government to: Permanently cease the annually scheduled mustang roundups, which will begin in July, 2021 in the Western United States.
So I am asking all people who care about animals to contact our elected and appointed officials. Please take the time to email contact the people listed below:
President Joe Biden, The White House www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland feedback@ios.doi.gov
Congressman Mike Thompson, D5 MikeThompsonforms.house.gov
Senator Diane Feinstein, Ca. Feinstein.senate.gov
Senator Alex Padilla, Ca. Padilla.senate.gov
—Anna Rose Ravenwoode, Kelseyville
