I’m writing in response to Kim Sarblewski’s letter to the editor on

Initiative 713 banning trapping in Washington. Ms. Sarblewski, like so

many animal-rights people, speaks on emotion and not with common sense

and scientific data, first of all, and wants to manage our wildlife in the State

of Washington with ballot-box biology.

I really would like to know how Ms. Sarblewski and Crazy Bob _

love that name, by the way! _ came to their conclusion that that raccoon was

injured in a leg-hold trap, as she is assuming. I, in fact, have seen

raccoons injured by cars in this way; maybe we should get rid of our cars.

Personally, the harvesting of any animal is not going to be a

beautiful thing, but it is a necessary management and control process. What

Ms. Sarblewski also does not tell you is that the money that Initiative 713 is

being paid for with is coming from six different national animal-rights groups

_ not exactly a local issue.

We in Washington have seen what emotional ballot-box voting has

done here recently, with all the bear and cougar problems due to the passage

of the last initiative animal-rights groups put forth. We have neighborhood

pets disappearing on a regular basis in our communities, and children have

been attacked and injured by cougars in our state because these animals are

not being hunted in the ways that are productive to keep them at bay and

afraid of humans. Plus, with their numbers increasing, they, the less

dominant animals, get forced into neighborhoods to look for food, so they

become problems and a danger to citizens.

So you see, Ms. Sarblewski and Crazy Bob, your feel-good

approach to wildlife management doesn’t work and ends up costing taxpayers

and homeowners. And also, Ms. Sarblewski, you noted about your

dogs and cats possibly getting caught in these traps. First of all, what are

your animals doing out unattended, and secondly, maybe you shouldn’t

worry about them getting caught in a trap, but being clamped down on by

the jaws of a beautiful cougar, or maybe a coyote, or even a bear. But, hey,

that would probably be OK in your book because that’s a natural kind of

thing. They have to eat too.

Michael Carter

North Bend