Maybe city council is bowing to it’s constituents
Re: “Colorado Springs, Aurora bend their knee to Texas’ Abbott,” March 2 editorial
You accused the Aurora City Council of bowing to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. It is possible that they were instead listening to their constituents, as elected leaders are supposed to do.
Possibly, Aurora’s voters value the flower beds in their city parks. They may enjoy having convenient access to their local DMV. They may even believe that having rec centers open to entertain their youth — especially with summer approaching — may distract those young people from less wholesome activities. As a Denver resident and taxpayer, I wish our own city council would be more like Aurora’s.
While I would like to help people who feel forced to leave their homes for a better life, I also believe it is important to take care of our own residents first. If there is not enough money to do everything a city would like to do, such as maintain the quality of life that attracted us to Denver in the first place, the voters should come first.
Also, you may have exaggerated somewhat the number of undocumented immigrants living in Aurora. It is hard to believe that a city with a population of just under 400,000 would have “hundreds of thousands” of immigrants without legal status.
The Aurora City Council may be responding to its voters, as elected officials should.
Patricia Bridges, Denver
Micromanaging restaurant menus
Re: “Proposed ban targets soda, sugary drinks in kids’ meals,” March 7 news story
Denver City Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Guitterez wants to ban certain drinks from appearing on the menu with kid’s meals in restaurants because she needs help instilling healthy dietary habits in her three children? Seriously? She is their mother; that should be all she needs.
I, for one, am tired of the Denver City Council, along with seemingly every other politician from either side, trying to micromanage our lives. We as a city, along with a state and a nation, are facing very serious problems, and this is what our city council is focused on. Either the serious problems are blown way out of proportion or our city leaders are simply too inept to deal with them.
David Forsyth, Denver
U.S. must get out of donkey slaughter business
Re: “Africa struggling to protect donkeys from Chinese trade,” Feb. 25 news story
The report highlights a sinister commerce that slays millions of the long-eared equines worldwide. China’s voracious appetite for ejiao (donkey hide gel) has depleted its national population. Smugglers steal donkeys from poor farmers in developing countries, wrecking their livelihoods. Donkeys are butchered in horrific conditions, many skinned alive.
Gone without mention: the U.S. is now the third largest consumer of ejiao, according to the Animal Welfare Institute, and a major supplier for this slippery trade. Some owners, unwilling to care for elder donkeys, sell them to “kill buyers.” Wild donkeys (called burros) grazing Western public lands are protected by the 1971 Wild Horse Act. Yet the Bureau of Land Management rounds up thousands from their designated habitats, using artificial population quotas that hold wild equid numbers to genetically unsustainable levels. As legitimate adoption demand wanes, many captives enter the slaughter pipeline in Mexico and Canada.
The Ejiao Act, recently reintroduced in Congress, would prohibit the sale and purchase of ejiao products. The SAFE Act would ban the export of horses and donkeys for slaughter abroad. Both are needed to stem this gruesome trade, along with reforms to federal land management agencies to preserve a vital natural resource before it disappears from the West.
Charlotte Roe, Berthoud
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