Letters

Editor,

I am writing in regard to the "PETA at odds with PetSmart” article in the March 2 edition of the Daily Journal. Caring people have good reason to be wary of the planned PetSmart at San Carlos Marketplace. PetSmart customers and employees nationwide have complained about the company’s treatment of animals. PETA conducted undercover investigations at PetSmart stores in Manchester, Conn., and Scottsdale, Ariz., and discovered hundreds of sick, injured and dead animals. The animal abuses include hamsters with bacterial infections who would need to be force-fed to survive; animals with upper respiratory infections; weak, dying reptiles; and baby birds dead on the aviary floor. One PetSmart employee, who was concerned that untrained workers were expected to diagnose animals and then just guess at which medications to give them, confessed, "I like animals way too much for this. I don’t like playing a vet at work, because I’m not a vet.”

PETA is asking PetSmart to stop selling all animals and focus on adopting out homeless animals from animal shelters and rescue groups. Since animal sales make up a small percentage of PetSmart's annual sales, it is not unreasonable for the company to stop selling them. PetSmart could still meet the needs of people with companion animals—PETA members included—if it sold only food, toys, and other supplies. Until then, PETA is calling for a nationwide boycott of all PetSmart stores. For details about PETA’s PetSmart investigations and campaign, see the Web site www.PETA.org.

Heather Moore

Norfolk, Virginia

The letter writer is a senior writer for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Services need quality

Editor,

Regarding the story in the Feb. 28 edition of the Daily Journal "Belmont will seek own garbage contract” about Belmont City Council desiring an independent contract for garbage pickup services starting 2011, the point being improvements to customer service. The service to our home by Allied Waste, and their predecessor BFI, has been good, but I would like to address the bigger picture when it comes to service agencies or utilities serving a community such as ours.

Having local governance or "local control” is not important as far as I’m concerned as long as the expectations for service are clearly delineated in advance, i.e., a clearly written contract with clear and concise deliverables in the contract which include how customer inquiries and complaints are addressed.

Prior to signing an exclusive franchise with a cable television company or a garbage company, there should be included in the contract, a Service Quality Index that is monitored and reviewed frequently. The SQI should include items such as customer complaints, categorize them and how those concerns or complaints have been addressed. Each category should have a performance rating and if or when that rating falls below prescribed limits with unacceptable improvements then penalties or contract off-ramps should be invoked.

David Altscher

Belmont

Attempts to silence Estrella Benavides a big mistake

Editor,

I would like to begin by saying that I do not support nor espouse the views of Estrella Benavides, however the city attorney’s office for San Mateo needs to go back to law school and learn how to research case law ("Roof message woman faces fines” in the Feb. 21 edition of the Daily Journal).

In each and every federal case such as this with a "sign” constructed of one’s own home, city councils such as yours attempting to regulate non-commercial speech posted on a home, have lost, costing millions in punitive damages to the city’s budget. These matters are not covered by liability insurance for the city because they are declared an "illegal act” by the federal court system.

Harassing Ms. Benavides is a fool’s errand that is only going to cost city employees their careers and the city of San Mateo lots of money. Perhaps, you should’ve done some case law research on this issue before taking this matter as far as your office is doing.

With thousands of American men and women dying in Iraq to provide the Iraqi people basic freedoms such as "freedom of speech,” the actions of the city of San Mateo are an insult to our servicemen and servicewomen as well as an unpatriotic Constitutional violation.

Charles M. Paugh

Portland, Ore.