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Show Dear Editor: In all fairness to "truj" dog lovers, and in defense of the poor "dog catcher" a civil servant doing his duty within the framework of th? law I feel I must respond to the Day Family's hyster- ieal, inaccurate tirade la.st week. This will probably make me most unpopular, both in our own neighborhood neighbor-hood and in town, but tho Truth must be faced. I will not attempt to take apart the inaccuracies and contradictions contra-dictions of the letter they speak for hemselves. My . own comments follow. Moab is a great town and we are all proud to be citizens citi-zens hero. But Moab is growing as we want it to but with growth come certain restrictions. These are nut always easy to take, particularly when you have been used to children, dogs and horses running willy-nilly willy-nilly throughout town, regardless re-gardless of whose properly they may be running through You want industry here, tourists here, etc., but with more people there must be tighter control and more discipline dis-cipline if there is to be any privacy at all. This restraint or loash law is not a new law in fact, it is an old one which has been up-dated several times tim-es yet it has been and still is being ignored by the townspeople. It really has few "teeth" in it not like some areas we have been where they insist upon muzzles muz-zles as well as leashes on public streets. Without som:-cooperation som:-cooperation on the parts of intelligent adults, how can one person hope to fulfill his job? At best, the role of do-; catcher is not an enviable one he must deal wi'h one of the most emotional problems in town violent emotions on both sides of the "pets" fence. His attempts at-tempts to control dogs running run-ning loose in the town have met with all kinds of devious dev-ious means of sneaking' and refusal to cooperate, in addition ad-dition to abusive language. Dogs permitted to run loose throughout the neighborhood are quckly housed when his truck turns the corner then, as soon as he is out of sight the dogs are again released re-leased to run free. Law abiding citizens? We are in a new neighborhood, neighbor-hood, attempting to establish a new yard. But what good is the expenditure uf all the time, energy and money mo-ney required if the thoughtless, thought-less, uncaring, undisciplined few constantly destroy wjint you have labored to construct. con-struct. Thoughtlessness breeds nothing but contempt. We have been dog lovers find pet owners for many years rnd can speak with some authority. au-thority. We hav" owned, raised and trained manv kinds of dogs. Dogs requir.? love, training and discipline just as children do. They respond to it, as children do, and are then really members mem-bers of your family. A well disciplined dog or child knows he is truly loved and cared for. A dog who is restrained re-strained in his own yard, by fence, run, chain or whatever, what-ever, minds it far loss than you do to prepare and make such a place for him. He does not object to his restriction re-striction so long as you show him that this, too, is part of your loving concern for his well-being. How can yon teach your children to be responsible, law-abiding citizens citi-zens (which must he done in the home) when you shovv such a flagrant disregard for the law? You arc speakng of taki'j away the dog's freedom what then of the freedom of ethers? To he free to walk down the street without possibly pos-sibly being molested by someone else's dog freedom free-dom to enjoy your own yard without the annoyance j someone else's dog? Freedom Free-dom yes, hut with freedom free-dom comes responsibility of action, just as with all privileges privi-leges come responsibility. You say. "What if there had been some children there"" Yes. supposing there had been, and the dog had been vicious and bitten one of them would you then say, 'Toor dog?" Freedom and privacy are precious things for all of us and not to be taken lightly nor illogically. You say you obey the laws. If you and your dug had been obeying the law. he would have been in his own yarl or on a leash (not a block nwav out of immediate sie'it) and this situation would not have occurred and your pj would still be alive. Now, who can you blame? The law? The dog catcher enforcing en-forcing the law? Or, yourself? your-self? Dorcas Torrion Dear Editor: I was just a little concerned concern-ed on last Thursday evening even-ing with the actions and conduct con-duct of some of our visiting and maybe local peace officers. of-ficers. The shooting going on at n local motel in a business and residential area, accompanied accompan-ied by loud voices and hilarious hilar-ious touching, is not my id'-i af anything funny or a gonj example to our young people. peo-ple. I heard at least R or 8 shots fired. Mavho no harm was done and blank cartridges cartrid-ges may have been used, but still it is not irreprnvahle conduct befitting a man chosen cho-sen for enforcing law and order in our cities, counties, and on our highways. A Concerned Citie.i |