A6 - The Terrace Slandard, Wednesday, October 13, 1999 CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag It’s Kitimat vs. the bears | Dear sir: The number of bears in this area is astounding. My exper- ience with bears is limited, but as a resident of Kitimat since 1972 | have had a few encounters - as have most people who live here. It seems to me the number of bears frequenting the com- munity is much higher than it used to be, and [ think there are a few reasons for this. - First, the fence around the dump, Second, the reduction” of huntiing the animals. Third; sympathetic protection for these large, dangerous:animals has gone past the reason- able and leapt into the ridiculous category, . We need zero tolerance for dangerous wildlife roaming our communities before it. comes as a result of a mauling or killing ofa human being, an The electric fence around the dump has. effectively kept the bears away. from that area. However, I: feel ii would be better to have (he bears at the dump than romping through town. . ce , As an opponent of the fence idea, I now think it would have been more effective and safer for the community had it been installed around the townsite rather then the dump. By removing the food source at the dump, which was acceptable to most bears that chose to-use it, we merely opened the door to residential Kitimat. ; Closing the bear to dumps did not stop them from look- ing for an easy food source, The hogwash about fruit trees and garbage being the cause of bears coming into town is just that. , Bears find anything that resembles or smells like food attractive. Blaming the owners of fruit trees and garbage cans nay address a small part of the problem, but not all of it. Anywhere humans live provides an easy access and food source for any predator, Humans without weapons ure easy pickings for even smaller predators than bears. Let them dine at the dump where they are not such a threat to a large number of people, If shooting them becomes necessary, if would make “ more sense to have the bears centrally located at the dump rather than charging through our back yards and schoo} grounds, a 4 | I find it hard to ia the save a beat, disarm a hunter ~ theory presented by Eree/bear huggers who most certainly have never come face-to-face with a bear while walking in downtown Victoria or Ottawa. ' A great deterrent to having hundreds of bears feeling at home on our streets would be an open season on the ani- mals once or twice a year, as the need arises. ~ This would promote the “survival of the fit” and natur- al selection which.is impeded by our urban presence and 20th century conservation attitudes to which.bears do not subscribe. . It'is not like the bears are being driven from their nalur- al habitat. Some deliberately leave millions: of square miles of uundeveloped land to roam our Jittle communities. / An open season could in turn provide some-revenue for our cash-challenged NDP government by requiring the gall bladders and paws be turned in, then sold abroad to thos cultures which use these products for medicinal or thera-- peutic purposes, That would also pul a damper on the poaching of this resource. : a In closing, I am not trying to suggest a free-for-all on bears, but with 43 kills so far this year, why nat open up the valley to hunters rather than throwing tax dollars away in man hours and relocation efforts. : And we could perhaps encourage the government to put some of these savings towards education or health care, where it would do a lot more good. Garry Schuss, Kitimat, B.C. second opinion made sense Dear Sir: 1am writing in reference to a Letter to the Editor, Ter- race Standard, September 15, 1999. James Fraser wrote thanking Councillor Linda Hawes for her position on the multiplex issue. Council is planning to spend Jess than $5,000 to give the Terrace taxpayer a clear idea of the cost of building this recreational facility. When council first discussed putting this project to re- ferendum we were given a ballpark estimate of $7.5 mil- lion dollars (now $8 . [and other councillors wanted to avoid putting the pro- ject to referendum with a cost that was not realistic, (as ~ happened with the swimming pool and the library). I phoned around the province to where projects of this size and larger were being build to discuss how this was being managed in their area. Chase after these people: An open letter to: The Ministry for Families and Children; and The Attorney General Dear Sirs: School violence must have come to your intelligent at- tention lately, What are you doing to stop it? Also check out your local stores for violent material, like toy guns. May I suggest that you starl suing the producers of vio- After this research it was determined that the way to go was by doing what council has elected to do, When you consider that this is a $7 million plus dollar project, I think that spending less than $5000 to get a second expert opi- nion is reasonable, so that if the referendum passes the project can be built for the money the voter has authar- ized, : Initially 1 wanted this to go to a spring referendum to have time to explore alternate sources of funding, grants from government and/or corporate sponsorships. [ con- sented to the November referendum on the condition that we proceed with the expert second opinion. I hope the preceding clarifies my position on this im- portant issue. Rich McDaniel, Councillor, City of Terrace lent TV shows and video games? Also check out your local stores for violent material, like toy guns. If it comes to dangers to society, it is not only child mo- lesters, but foremost the producers of immoral entertain- ment. Your censoring of hate printing is onc thing. Censoring of violent material is even a more urgent must. Avoid hy- pacrisy. Bill Homburg, Terrace, B,C, They deserve recognition Dear Sir: The streets of Moscow reflect the western influence with all its rottenness. While people suffer, millionaires are being created. To think of all the sufferings that these great people en- dured through the turbulent years, cleansing their country . of corrupt religions and degenerative practices, to now have the gates flung open wide, allowing the re-entry of corruplion, unprecedented anywhere. It seems that nowhere in western society, do we hear any praise of the great accomplishments of the Soviet has never sounded better. Union under the communism, the smashing of the Hitler hoards, the untold suffering of their peoples, their cities destroyed, Yet despite all these terrible historic uphea- vals and colossal reconstruction, their system assembled and pul the first satellite and had a long-standing space station in orbit. 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