• County employee, a hard worker • KHS cat count not unusual • Fishing line danger to marine life County employee, a hard worker I moved from the Mainland to Waimea a year ago. Most days I go to Salt Pond Beach Park
• County employee, a hard worker • KHS cat count not unusual • Fishing line danger to marine life
County employee, a hard worker
I moved from the Mainland to Waimea a year ago. Most days I go to Salt Pond Beach Park to swim. I was lucky enough to exchange much aloha with uncle Louis, official mayor of Salt Pond. Through him, I had the pleasure of meeting Simplicia Tugade, who cleans the park for the county. Not only does she clean out the restrooms and other public areas every day, she also acts as park ranger and groundskeeper! I see her work so hard every day, so I wanted to thank her in public so that her fellow islanders can appreciate her as well. Give this woman a raise!
Jane Kinzer, Waimea
KHS cat count not unusual
Regarding “Kauai too unique to compare euthanasia rates” on June 8, I don’t think what the author says is true. The number of feral cats on Kauai is typical when compared withother locations, according to the Feral Cat Task Force (it’s on the Web). Their numbers include cats living in wild areas as well as cats living in our neighborhoods.
The Kauai Humane numbers also show that they handle a normal number of stray/feral cats. For example, data from over a thousand animal organizations show that thepercentage of cats taken into shelters in 2014 (stray/feral or owner surrender) averaged 53 percent of the total. At KHS, it was 56 percent. The five-year average at KHS was 57percent.
I know people who do this, and one of them is Ms. Girdany. Each year she spends significant time and money on this problem. If everyone on this island did one-tenth of what shedid, we would make huge and rapid progress on our problem of too many homeless cats.
Ned Selfe, Kalaheo
Fishing line danger to marine life
While enjoying King Kamehameha Day snorkeling up at Anini Beach, I came across a turtle that was frantically swimming but not moving. When I got closer to see what theproblem was, I discovered the poor creature was entangled in fishing line. It was belching out air and in danger of drowning so I had to do something fast. Not wanting to getbitten by the frantic turtle I tried keeping as far away as possible and work on untangling the fish line.
Luckily, shortly after I began, the turtle was suddenly free and made its escape. Since I wanted to prevent any other animal from getting caught in the line, I spent the next 15minutes removing the line and raveling it back up so I could properly dispose of it ashore. There must have been a good 20 feet of line in that mess. A monk seal could havegotten caught in all of that.
Please, folks, when you are out fishing and your line gets caught and snaps, take more care to remove it.
CDR Ken Fasig USN (ret.), Kalaheo
