Letters for May 10, 2016

Letters for May 10, 2016

Mahalo for aloha, Massachusetts women

On Saturday, May 6, at approximately 1930 hours, I drove to Salt Pond on the Westside, to Burns Field on the outside of the fence area of the air strip, with my stepdaughter and the two granddaughters.

We were looking for my other stepdaughter and her family. The tide was high and there wasn’t much of the dirt road to drive on. In short, I had to pass through soft sand and water from the beach.

As I drove through, I slid into the shoreline and got stuck. We were approximately 30 yards from some local young adults who were hanging out and partying. My stepdaughter walked close to them and they just turned their backs to her.

Shortly after two girls (Yojin and Laura) from Massachusetts walked by and offered to help. Yojin went and got her little SUV 4 x 4. She gave us a short tow and we were out onto hard dirt road. I did not get their last names. However, I hope they are reading this.

From the bottom of my heart, “mahalo nui loa!” (Thank you very much). You two showed a lot of aloha.

Howard Tolbe

Kapaa

Cats critical to island’s ecosystem

Mr. MacMacken, I read with interest your missive of May 6 with interest about those horrible feral cats and the damage done to one spinner dolphin. How can anyone live with the idea of a spinner, or other dolphin, killed? Please allow me to educate your readers.

For quite a few years, dolphins were slaughtered by the dozens by fishermen catching tuna. Proof of this fact can be seen on any tuna can you can pick up in the store. If you look at the label you will see a picture of a dolphin in a circle and the words, “Dolphin Free” to denote no dolphin was injured in that catch. Should we also ban fishing to continuously protect dolphins? This is the message I received from your letter.

In 1665, Europe was engulfed in a deep mess due to the fact they slaughtered many cats believed to be “familiar” of witches.

The death toll from the Black (Bubonic) Plague was estimated to be between 25 percent to 50 percent because rats and mice carried the fleas that carried the plague.

We live on an island, illnesses come here from all over the world due to our destination as a tourist heaven. Do we really want to chance it or will we learn from history?

I heard from someone who read an article in The Garden Island of someone wanting to introduce mongooses to our island to eradicate rats. Interesting concept except mongoose hunt during the day and rats hunt at night. What will these mongooses eat? Birds nest on the ground, have nests with eggs, easy dinner?

About rats and mice: an average rodent is of breeding age at six months. Each female can have one to 32 to a litter.

If half are female and breed at six months of age in a years time you can have — you do the math. As you can see, cats are an important part of our ecosystem and even if you are an ailurophobe, you can see it is time to leave our ferals alone.

Spay, neuter, care for the colonies, is the best thing for our island.

Ali’ilani Kanui

Kapaa