Don’t criticize police for shooting chimp

To the editor:

In response to Patricia McKinney’s Sunday letter to the editor on last week’s killing of an escaped chimpanzee:

The one thing we can agree on is that Buddy’s tragic death was indeed “a totally shameful and disgusting ending to a majestic animal’s life,” as Ms. McKinney wrote. The rest of her letter, however, was pure flaming, ignorant, idiotic nonsense.

An enraged chimp is an immediate danger to the public. Chimpanzees are immensely strong, and this one was justifiably enraged. To raise a chimp, the closest analogue to a human being, as a member of the family and then not only expel that member of the family but keep it locked up in a tiny enclosure is both inhumane and barbaric (Saturday Review-Journal). That’s the shameful and disgusting part.

Now let’s talk about the supposedly “rogue cop” Ms. McKinney criticized. That cop did exactly the right thing. Period. Police are not issued tranquilizer guns. That cop was the last line of defense for the human population of the city in that area. If the chimp had got past him, there is no telling what might have happened, or who might have gotten killed. If that cop had not killed Buddy, an innocent human might have been torn limb from limb, and I do not exaggerate.

Had Ms. McKinney been paying attention to the news, she would know about the recent severe injuries suffered by a person trained to be around chimps. That police officer deserves our heartfelt thanks for a difficult job well done. It’s easy to report that he shot and killed the chimp. That says nothing about the difficulty of executing that duty. Those of us in the know understand the technical difficulties of what was done. It was sad and tragic, but it was necessary.

I for one, salute that cop for a job well done in the service of our community.

Rich Daugherty

Las Vegas

Mindless bureaucrats

To the editor:

Let me see if I have this right: “a properly licensed” person can keep large dangerous animals locked in cages in their backyard under conditions that would have PETA storming the barricades (“Caged chimps often raged,” Saturday Review-Journal). But a lady trying to help and heal hummingbirds is not permitted to do so because she isn’t “properly licensed” (“Rescuer runs afoul of state,” Saturday Review-Journal)?

This is a textbook example of how pathetic our government is at all levels. We are increasingly under the control of corrupt, incompetent, power-hungry politicians and petty, mindless bureaucrats who lack the common sense required to tamp sand into a rat hole.

David Stevenson

Henderson

No common sense

To the editor:

I am appalled at the “thinking” that makes it legal to cage a wild chimpanzee, drive it insane and then kill the poor beast when it gets loose, while at the same time it’s illegal to rescue and release injured hummingbirds because the correct paperwork is not in order.

Marion Brady was not selling the birds or making a profit from their care (Saturday Review-Journal). Why not just issue the rehabilitating documents to her? Too sensible?

Darlien C. Breeze

Las Vegas

Tipping point

To the editor:

Marion Brady found a hobby giving back to society and helping the smallest among us, the hummingbird, by rescuing injured or abandoned birds. She was obviously very successful, gaining a local following and releasing many birds back into the wild (Saturday Review-Journal).

But this could not stand with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Doug Nielsen of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, who are apparently paid with tax dollars to micromanage every aspect of our lives.

Keeping in mind that these birds are not even close to an endangered species, Mr. Nielsen’s statement that he and his ilk just want to keep “some order to things” is offensive to many freedom-loving Americans. This meddling bureaucratic mind-set starts when our infant children are coerced by our government to be injected with multiple vaccines of questionable safety, often against their parents’ wishes. Do you want the option of consuming nutritious raw milk or unpasteurized cheese, as the rest of the world has done for hundreds of years? You can’t do that in the land of the free.

Fasten your seat belt, pee in a cup, stop at the constitutionally questionable DUI and ICE checkpoints and get ready for local, state and federal drone surveillance. And in the end, in most states, we can’t even die on our own terms without government approval.

Freedom-loving Americans are finally reaching a tipping point where there will be push back against micromanaging governmental interference in our lives. That point may just be brought about by something as small as a hummingbird.

Brian Covey

Las Vegas

Unworthy of honor

To the editor:

In his Sunday column, Steve Sebelius does not deny that late former U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran, after whom Las Vegas’ international airport is named, was a xenophobic, anti-Semitic, red-baiting bigot.

But Mr. Sebelius astonishingly concludes that the Clark County airport should not be renamed because Sen. McCarran did some good things for Nevada.

Well, Mussolini made the trains run on time. But he was still a fascist, unworthy of any postwar honors.

I’m embarrassed when I have to explain to visitors who Sen. McCarran was and how he was the power behind McCarthyism during that shameful period in U.S. history.

Mel Lipman

Las Vegas