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Letters to The Editor, Week of March 9, 2017

Letters to The Editor, Week of Jan. 3, 2018

Fur is not cool

To The Editor:

Re “Call of the wild: Why we protest Canada Goose” (talking point, by Nathan Semmel and Leonardo Anguiano, March 2):

The protests are targeting Canada Goose because they are the most popular brand and are the company that is most viably responsible for making dead animal skin “cool” again to wear by brainless zombies who are totally disconnected from the fact that the animals they are wearing were once living, breathing canines.

As a longtime New Yorker I remember back in the ’90s when it was unheard of to wear dead animal fur in the city.

Jamey Brooks

 

Someday it will end

To The Editor:

Re “Call of the wild: Why we protest Canada Goose” (talking point, by Nathan Semmel and Leonardo Anguiano, March 2):

I believe many residents in the area will be thankful that this store is gone someday. Not just because the protests will end, but because these murdered animals will no longer be peddled by the awful company Canada Goose. I talk to many people in the neighborhood who agree with the actions being taken.

Larry Trepel

 

Fur your information…

To The Editor:

Re “Fur fight: Activists vow to cook Canada’s Goose” (news article, Feb. 23):

Each of us is free to choose whether we wish to wear fur (or down), but the intense and often rowdy protests about Canada Goose are self-serving and hypocritical in a society where most people eat meat, wear leather and use a wide range of animal products every day.

Coyotes are highly abundant and their populations must be managed in many regions (to protect calves and lambs), whether we use the fur or not. Several states have issued bounties when fur prices did not offer sufficient incentive for hunters to cull coyote populations.

From an ecological perspective, the well-regulated North American fur trade is an excellent example of the sustainable and responsible use of renewable natural resources. The protesters also don’t understand that overpopulated coyotes are more vulnerable to disease and parasites like sarcoptic mange, which cause far more suffering than regulated, modern, science-based trapping methods.

The synthetics proposed by animal activists are generally made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource.

These ill-informed protests are glaring examples of the arrogance of a spoiled urban culture that has lost contact with the hard-working and knowledgeable people on the land who feed and clothe us. So-called “animal-rights” groups like PETA have degenerated into politically correct hate groups. These protests have much in common with the hateful style and fact-adverse rhetoric that increasingly dominates our political landscape.

Alan Herscovici

Herscovici is senior researcher / writer, TruthAboutFur.com

 

Coats of cruelty

To The Editor:

Re “Call of the wild: Why we protest Canada Goose” (talking point, by Nathan Semmel and Leonardo Anguiano, March 2):

Thank you for writing the truth on why we protest this vile brand of clothing. Canada Goose uses cruelty in every stitch of their coats!

Rachel Ejsmont

 

What will it take?

To The Editor:

Re “Call of the wild: Why we protest Canada Goose” (talking point, by Nathan Semmel and Leonardo Anguiano, March 2):

Wonderfully said and thanks to The Villager for featuring. If Canada Goose would sell the heads of the canines instead of their skin, perhaps some of these residents would finally see the truth and feel differently about having such a horrific, vile shop of horrors on their block.

Denise Ross

 

Change horses

To The Editor:

Another New York City carriage horse collapsed on Feb. 21, but it did not come to the attention of the public until almost one week later. Carriage drivers are not required to report accidents.

The horse’s owner claims that Max, the horse, was wearing new shoes and tripped — but eyewitnesses said the horse was breathing heavily before he collapsed. An industry vet examined Max, but too much time has passed to do an independent investigation.

Horses do not trip on pavement “all the time,” as claimed by the owner. And even if this were true, then this is more reason not to have horses working the pavement of New York City.

Mayor Bill de Blasio made a campaign promise to end the inhumane horse carriage trade but allowed himself to be overpowered and bullied by the Teamsters and other unions who sought to align themselves with this failing business to show the nation that unions were still viable. They threatened to withdraw support from the mayor and it worked. Now we cannot even get the administration to enforce the street laws governing this business.

The term “fake news” had its beginnings with the local media about this business — talking outright lies about good union jobs, extensive oversight of city agencies, the bogus desire for the stable land; the minuscule number of horses who have died in the business; first-class stalls and stables; highly exaggerated financial contribution to the economy; safety a nonissue.

The fake news worked.  If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it as truth.

As it stands now, the administration is not transparent on this issue and will not even deal with those of us who criticize them.  Sound familiar to what is happening in Washington, D.C.?

Our recourse? Vote! Make your voice heard in November.

Elizabeth Forel

Forel is president, Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages

 

Keller’s gay heyday

To The Editor:

Re “Barrow neighbors fear ‘Nightmare on Jane II’ in Keller Hotel project” (news article, Feb. 23):

The article left out an important part of the building’s history in the L.G.B.T. rights movement: Its ground floor housed the long-running Keller’s bar, which was probably one of the first gay bars ever to cater to African-American gay men — and their admirers. This was following its previous incarnations as a sailor/hustler/gay bar in the ’50s, then a leather bar in the late ’60s and ’70s. I believe it closed around 1998.

Jacob R. Clark

 

Ommm-men for A.B.

To The Editor:

Your newspaper is awesome! Love your Angry Buddhist column! Very sardonic! Many well-written articles! Great stuff!

Bryan Gerard Briggs

 

E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.