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Letter to the editor

Today's Letters: Another knee jerk letter on pit bulls

Re: Pit bulls are a danger; ban them now guest column by Mary Kousathanas, Sept. 4

Another knee jerk letter on pit bulls

How sad the St. Petersburg Times has printed yet another letter by a closed-minded, ill-informed citizen regarding the danger of pit bulls and demanding that the breed be banned.

The only dog that ever bit me and drew blood was a "precious" chihuahua owned by a little old lady across the street from my grandmother's in St. Petersburg many years ago. No one thought to call the police or ban the dog breed or have the frisky little pain in the ankle euthanized.

The fact that a pit bull can certainly do significant damage if one chomps on you is indisputable - it is the physical structure of this dog's jaws - but have you ever been bitten by a Rottweiler, German shepherd, Doberman pinscher, chow, or perhaps even a cranky cocker spaniel? It happens every day, but no one cares to report it. It's just not exciting enough.

Any child or frail elderly person savagely bitten by one of these dogs would be damaged and traumatized, but I hear no call for banning these breeds.

When a dog bites, it is the owner who must pay the penalty. When any dog bites. Rigorously fine the owners and add some complimentary jail time for repeat offenders, and fewer dog bites from any breed will result. There are already laws on the books for this purpose.

Unfortunately, the owners can vote, while the dogs cannot, so just eliminate the dog, eh?

Dog training classes are available all over the county and should be a responsible part of dog ownership. Perhaps if every dog bite were addressed with the hysteria that pit bulls receive, we could just ban all dogs completely.

Ah, but then there are those darn cats, too.

And while we're at it, why not ban all these huge, behemoth vehicles from our streets? They certainly do more harm in an accident than, say, a Volkswagen or Toyota, right? And they surely kill more than their fair number of citizens. But that's another issue for another day.

Frances Duchene, Clearwater

Re: Boosting beach density is unwise letter, Sept. 6

High-rise on beach is far from best use

All the talk about "green thinking" has apparently not helped any of our going concerns here on the Florida gulf coast.

Under the guise of highest and best use, we allow overdevelopment of the most valuable resource in Florida, the beach.

The economics of highest and best use is a joke. The property that was once open, spacious and accessible is now cluster-phobic, privatized and exclusive. So while the local governments and commerce temporarily thrive, one day soon that resource will be wasted and destroyed.

I don't mean some day long, long away. I mean take a look around at Gulf Boulevard. Can you even get out to the beach anymore? How about Clearwater Beach? Well, it's not all bad, we did get a couple of roundabouts and a rickety bridge.

Meanwhile, we will reap the poor city planning and lack of stewardship by our elected representatives. Our property values and businesses will suffer from the misappropriation of Florida's resources.

The draw of Florida is our beaches. If we over develop our coastline, it will ultimately cost everyone. That is not the highest and best use for any reasonable person with the future of Florida's economics or lifestyle in mind.

Jason Locales, Tarpon Springs

Re: WWII veteran says freedom lost letter, Sept. 6

Letter writer had ulterior motive

Surely, as a past member of the military, letter writer Bert Hanson already knows that rules are rules. I would think that rules are a basic fact of military life.

The security employees at airports can't decide who they are going to enforce rules on and who they aren't. With thousands of people passing through airports every day, it doesn't make sense that we would let screeners decide who they think looks like a potential terrorist.

With all the respect that Mr. Hanson is owed for serving this country, it is obvious that he just dislikes the president and is using airport security practices to attack him.

That kind of dishonesty is a dishonor to the uniform he once wore.

Mike Keller, Largo

Your voice counts

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[Last modified September 6, 2007, 20:31:07]