Help the Ferals
Lane County has a terrible cat overpopulation problem. Rescues and shelters are full and struggling to do all they can. Yes, the price of spay/neuter has skyrocketed, just as everything else has. Vet clinics have their expenses — wages, supplies, overhead, etc.
We can do many things:
1. Landlords and property managers require that pets of tenants are spayed, neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.
2. When a stray shows up, if it is rescued then, instead of waiting until one turns into a dozen, spay/neuter.
3. If you have an overpopulation problem in your area, neighbors have a garage sale, and those funds go to spay/neuter your feral population.
4. The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon is in Portland (FeralCats.com). They will take 15 to 20 cats from a caretaker at one time by appointment. Yes, it means a long trip, someone with a cargo van or pickup/canopy and borrowing lots of live traps. But it is being done. Their suggested donation cost is $50 per cat., but they work with folks.
5. Eugene and Springfield are certainly large enough to have a shelter. Eugene does contract with Greenhill. What is available for Springfield residents? Rescues are limited in finances, fosters, time and volunteers.
6. How many vet clinics are in the Eugene/Springfield area and all of Lane County? If each clinic, once a year, were to donate 10 low-cost spay/neuter procedures to rescues, it would make a huge impact.
How are you helping?
JAnetta Overholser
Cottage Grove
More on Wild Horses
I want to thank Eugene Weekly for its story on wild horses (August 8). Many people are unaware of what is happening to them. Wild horses live freely in herd management areas in remote areas of Eastern Oregon where they contribute to the ecosystems as a native, keystone species.
However, there are special interests that want them removed so the land can be used for livestock grazing or other types of industry. These special interests will call the horses feral or invasive and say they are overpopulated, but this is purely propaganda to get the public’s support in eradicating the horses. Unfortunately, the government caters to industry instead of following the science resulting in dire consequences like extreme wildfires.
The government, specifically the Bureau of Land Management, insists on using arbitrary numbers to determine how many horses the land can sustain called AML (Appropriate Management Levels). These numbers are not derived by any scientific means but are used more out of convenience and to justify horrific treatment like the round ups. You can help by telling your representatives you want the round ups to stop, we need more voices speaking up.
You can also find more information on social media: Advocates for Wild Equines, Oregon Wild Horse Organization and Wild Horse Education.
Tenaya Jewell
Dexter
Peace and Clean Air
If you haven’t been up to the south overlook on Skinner Butte lately, I highly recommend checking it out — by bike or a short walk up from the gate. Due to fire risk, the top is now closed to cars, and the result is incredible. I never thought I would see the place without the heat, noise and exhaust of 20 or so cars that seem to idle their engines up there no matter the weather or time of day.
The closure has utterly transformed it into a pleasant urban overlook. With the loss of the College Hill Reservoir, I bet a lot of skaters and other folks could even put that empty parking lot to good use.
City of Eugene, can we please keep it this way?
Billy Epting
Eugene
A Libertarian Stand
My name is Dan Bahlen. I am on the ballot for the 2024 election as the Libertarian candidate for federal office in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. I am running to be the next U.S. representative and plan to challenge both the Democratic incumbent, Val Hoyle, and her Republican opponent, Monique DeSpain.
I believe the 4th Congressional District deserves a debate between myself, DeSpain and Hoyle. I challenge both to a debate. I am eager to coordinate the details of where, when and how this debate will take place. I propose holding the debate in the Eugene area after the Donald Trump-Kamala Harris debate on Sept. 10.
As a Libertarian, my goal is to unify Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. I am campaigning on two main themes. First, I aim to unify the district as we confront global threats such as war, economic instability and climate change. I believe I can bring together Republican, Democrat and unaffiliated/third party voters to support my candidacy.
Coming from an Apache reservation in Arizona, where I faced retaliation as a federal whistleblower, I am aware of the challenges of racial barriers. Oregon has yet to send a Black person to the U.S. Congress, and, as an Apache man, I recognize the need to break through these social barriers.
Dan Bahlen
Eugene
Who Smokes These Days?
The other evening, while walking downtown on a Friday night, I was approached by an individual who asked me if I had a cigarette. At that time, a group of young people were passing by, and they also heard the individual ask for a cigarette. I looked at him and said, “Nobody smokes anymore, man!“ to which the group of young people responded, “Yeah! Nobody smokes anymore!”
I think that is becoming the case with the younger crowd, and I think more people are deciding to quit. We all know it will kill you. It does kill you and it is nothing but toxic. I don’t know when Eugene Weekly began printing full page ads for cigarette companies, but it is clear that you are hurting for cash. I don’t know if morals and ethics have been thrown out the window and concern for our community’s health is a second thought, but I feel printing cigarette ads in a publication like the Eugene Weekly is abhorrent.
But, cash is king.
John Carlson
Eugene
Editor’s Note: We used to regularly run American Spirit ads around 2008. Regardless of the past, we appreciate readers letting us know what they think of ads and content in the paper and we appreciate the local advertisers who are the mainstay of what keeps us printing!
No to Businessmen
Bob Bussel’s recent defense of “career politicians” (EW, August 15) makes too much sense for our Oligarchy-tainted election system. Voters in general are also woefully ignorant about public service.
I’ve been voting in all kinds of elections since 1960, and how many times have I heard people solemnly intone, “We need a businessman to run the government.” How intelligent is that? Two “businessmen presidents” in the last nearly 100 years were Herbert Hoover, who brought America the Great Depression, and more recently George W. Bush, who presided over the 2008 Recession, second in disaster to the Great Depression.
Today, you hear Donald Trump supporters say they support him because he’s a “businessman.” That’s laughable, of course. “Businessman” Trump is so unimaginably stupid he thinks tariffs are paid by the country we impose them on. But we’ve structured our electoral system so that politicians have to raise humongous amounts of money, which automatically makes them beholden to the highest bidder.
If all politicians were professional and given the same amount of money to campaign with, they’d have work for the voters. What are the odds of that happening? About as good as Elon Musk colonizing Mars.
Rene Tihista
Springfield
A Salvage Logging Power Grab
Regarding Willamette National Forest Supervisor David Warnack and Middle Fork District Ranger Molly Juillerat: As public servants to the American people, how do you ethically, morally and scientifically believe 3,000 to 4,000 acres of salvage logging along 125 miles of logging roads within the Fall Creek and Salmon Creek watersheds is going to help fragile ecosystems recover from the 2021 to 2023 Gales-Cedar-Bedrock wildfires in the short or the long term?
As public employees for the U.S. Forest Service, how does one rationalize sidestepping and avoiding following the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by using “Emergency Action Authorities” to complete such a corrupt “salvage logging” timber grab?
What will you tell your children and grandchildren when they ask what you did as leaders inside the Forest Service to save the biosphere when it’s in complete collapse?
Since resigning from the Umpqua National Forest in 1991, I learned of new lawless timber grabs increasingly appearing in every national forest across the country.
The Forest Service has violated the public trust for at least 80 years — even President Franklin Roosevelt tried to rein in Forest Service corruption. Therefore, the only solution is disbanding the U.S. Forest Service and granting all 190 million acres of national forests to the National Park Service.
PS: Juillerat was recently promoted to forest supervisor of the Rogue River National Forest.
Shannon Wilson
Eugene
The Rich Keep Getting Bigger
The proposed merger between Capital One and Discover seriously threatens working-class families. Capital One has a long history of exploiting vulnerable consumers with high interest rates and aggressive debt collection practices. This merger would give Capital One the ability to raise debit interchange fees, negatively impacting consumers and small businesses alike.
The merger would make Capital One the sixth largest U.S. bank by assets, heightening the risk for our financial system in an economic downturn due to their vulnerable and limited business model focused heavily on sub-prime credit card and auto lending. The U.S. credit card market is already highly concentrated, with the top ten issuers controlling 83 percent of outstanding credit card debt.
Capital One fails to meet its obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act, particularly in communities like ours where it has a significant market presence but lacks brick-and-mortar branch offices. It utilizes its online model to skirt the requirements to invest in low and moderate-income communities imposed on our more traditional brick-and-mortar regional banks. Instead of investing in affordable housing or providing fair credit options, they prioritize profits over people. This merger would exacerbate these issues, further consolidating the credit card industry and reducing choices for consumers.
We have a template for mergers that can be done right. Look no further than the recent merger between Columbia and Umpqua Bank, where they signed a groundbreaking community benefits agreement.
We need a financial system that serves everyone. I urge regulators to reject this harmful merger.
Kevin CronIn
Eugene
Take Back the Flag
With Kamala Harris’ recent ascension as the Democratic presidential candidate and standard bearer — and the accompanying groundswell of support — it is now an ideal time for all Americans to stand up, unite and be heard, to take care of the business of being real Americans and reclaim the principles our nation represents.
It’s time to reclaim the heart and soul of America — our legacy of freedom and justice for all — and the cherished symbols for which it stands.
Our very flag, our stars and stripes have for too long been co-opted by extremists and weirdos who bear no resemblance to the honorable citizens of the United States of America — and now it is time to take it back! Reclaim the symbol of this country, united with liberty and justice for all.
We the people own that flag! Let our voices be heard. Vote as if our country and our legacy depend on it. Take back our flag!
Mari Crutfchfield
Eugene
A Nod to Agnew
The Greedy Old People (GOP) chose two nattering nabobs of negativity (thanks, Spiro Agnew). The felonious fraudulent fibber is violent, vengeful and vindictive. Both are weird. Their denigration drags us back to a dark, dystopian, corrupt, violent and hate filled past. Their path to fascism is outlined in Project 2025. They have no policies except tax cuts for the rich, deporting brown people and waging war on women.
Now the Democrats have chosen the dynamic duo for democracy, fun-filled fighters for freedom. The happy, helpful, humane team is pragmatic, progressive and populist. They have innumerable, very popular, common sense programs to help the 99 percent with the opportunity economy with lower prices, cheaper housing and better health care with lower medicine cost. Education, infrastructure, climate change, health care, gun safety and choice. They are looking forward to a clean, bright, hopeful and secure future.
The choice is very clear: Freedom or fascism, honesty or lies, reality or fantasy, science and facts or corporate propaganda, progress or regression.
Please educate yourself. Compare the popular ideas of Bernie Sander’s Progressive Central 2024, with the pragmatic ideas at the joyous democratic convention, with the dour Republican fiasco. Look at what Gov. Tim Walz has done for Minnesota. Look at the Kamala Harris/Walz Democratic Party platform. Read about Project 2025.
Then get registered to vote and help return the country to civility, fairness and normalcy.