Opinion | What Kristi Noems puppy, Wyomings wolves and rodeo bulls teach us -

Regarding Kathleen Parker’s April 21 op-ed, “Cry for the wolf,” and the April 27 online news article “Democrats, political figures dogpile onto Trump VP hopeful after story of animal killings”:

Two recent events ought to spur a national conversation over our treatment of animals. In Wyoming, weak laws permitted the torture and killing of a young wolf, an event that spurred understandable public outrage. Next, the public learned that South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, a contender for the Republican vice-presidential nomination, killed both her 14-month-old puppy, because she deemed it “untrainable,” and a “nasty and mean” goat. Ms. Noem’s acts of cruelty managed to do the impossible: unite people across the political spectrum in condemnation. The public’s response to instances of cruelty toward animals demonstrates a profound public concern for animal welfare. Yet laws in the United States fail to prioritize animal protection in line with public sentiment.

In recent decades, many countries have updated their laws to provide more meaningful legal protection for animals, with some countries — among them France and New Zealand — and judges even classifying animals as “sentient.” Many planetary crises, including climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss and species extinction, stem from humanity’s treatment of animals and their habitats. The recognition that our actions can affect all life on the planet has fueled legal reforms around the world to afford animals with greater protection.

Despite these unprecedented reforms, the United States lags behind its major trading partners in its legal treatment of animals and struggles to address even basic forms of animal cruelty. In failing to keep up, the United States risks becoming an outlier in an increasingly interconnected world. Laws must evolve, and, first and foremost, they must prohibit the acts of animal cruelty that we are seeing far too often in headlines.

Kimberly Moore, Apopka, Fla.

The writer is the author of “The Case for the Legal Protection of Animals: Humanity’s Shared Destiny with the Animal Kingdom.”

Kathleen Parker is horrified at the alleged torture and killing of a wolf by a Wyoming man — and rightly so. But her call for policy reform is rooted in distorted claims, and her description of Wyoming’s wolf management structure as “wolf-elimination policy” is inaccurate.

It’s true, for example, that no license is required to kill a wolf in “predator zones,” which cover about 85 percent of the state. But Ms. Parker omits the important context that most of Wyoming’s wolf population occurs within the trophy zone, where hunting is strictly regulated. As the federal court decision upholding Wyoming’s dual wolf status noted, just 19 percent of the state’s “suitable wolf habitat” lies in the predator area. The court concluded that “the species would not become endangered even if every single wolf there were killed.”

And while Ms. Parker claimed that “in 2021, the Republican-led legislature passed a law calling for the extermination of 90 percent of the state’s gray wolves,” that’s simply not true. The law was enacted in Idaho, not Wyoming, and contrary to the claim, Idaho’s law simply allows the killing of wolves when the population exceeds recovery goals.

Ms. Parker also discounted, without important context, the reason wolf hunters’ identities are protected in Wyoming as “thanks to a 2012 law passed after the harassment of an Idaho wolf hunter whose name had been posted online.” That law came after years of wolf advocates publishing the names of people who had legally killed wolves and who were subsequently deluged with vicious messages or even calls that they should be fired.

Given these and other gaps in her column, Ms. Parker discredits her own call for “national authorities [to] move quickly” to supersede Wyoming’s regulations. Wyoming has a felony animal abuse statute, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department issued a citation for the offense it had jurisdiction to oversee, and the Wyoming wolf case is under investigation. How the animal cruelty case proceeds will largely depend on the findings of law enforcement, prosecutors, and a judge or jury.

Cat Urbigkit, Boulder, Wyo.

The writer is a rancher in western Wyoming.

Upon retrieving my April 21 copy of The Post, I was quite taken aback by the photo of J.B. Mauney with a cigarette dangling from his mouth that introduced the front-page article “A legendary cowboy’s last ride.” His life story was quite disturbing.

Turning the pages, I came upon Kathleen Parker’s op-ed, “Cry for the wolf.” I forced myself to read it three times; each read sickened me. However, the essay enlightened me even more to the plight of wolves in Wyoming and other states in the West. As a monthly donor to numerous animal welfare organizations, I was aware of the situation of the white and red wolves in the West, but this writing was gut-wrenching.

What is the common denominator that bull riding, bull fighting, rodeos, circuses, zoos, roadside zoos, marine mammal parks, horse racing, dog racing, trophy hunting, canned hunting, the selling of horses to Mexico and Canada for human consumption, and factory farms all have in common? It should be quite obvious: the torture, the abuse, the killing of nonhuman species for entertainment, power, greed and profit. What an interesting environment it would be if the tables were turned and humans found themselves in a world where we were the victims. It has been well documented that the consumption of nonhuman species has created all types of diseases, especially obesity. It’s time for all of us to conduct some introspection. A continuation of such human behavior will eventually lead us to where we are going “full speed ahead”: our own culpability in the destruction of our species as Mother Nature looks on and laughs.

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Marian Patey, Manassas

Honor responders

Regarding the April 30 news article “4 officers are fatally shot, 4 injured while serving warrant in Charlotte”:

The horrible news of the killing of four law enforcement officers in Charlotte is a sad illustration of the urgent need to honor all first responders with a highly visible national holiday. Most Americans do not know Oct. 28 is set aside each year to recognize the vital work done by these dedicated professionals.

Since that date is just before Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, there is little space to develop National First Responders Day as an independent holiday with the celebration, such as a large parade, it deserves. Over the past few years, I have observed little public interest or knowledge of that particular date. And while there are large parades at which police and firefighters wear full dress uniforms throughout the year, they deserve their own day for a celebration of their courageous response to all our needs for protection of life and property.

Why not consider a date in late April or early May? Or fuse the celebration with St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in March? Irish Americans have a long history in the professional development of both services.

Bob Sweeney, Warwick, R.I.

A clear path

Regarding the April 24 article “Study involving rare cancer offers hope of predicting treatment’s success”:

As The Post recently reported, 5 out of every 1 million people have a melanoma tumor in their eye. I’m one of those very rare people.

After obtaining an opinion to do brachytherapy radiation on my tumor, I sought a second opinion, which I then accepted, for an enucleation (eye removal) because of the size and aggressiveness of my melanoma tumor. The fact that cancer from a melanoma tumor usually appears next in the liver and possibly in the brain encouraged me to take this dramatic move. I’m pleased to say that my healing from the enucleation is going well, and I’m adjusting to seeing things from only one eye. If all goes well, I will meet with an ocularist in early June to design a prosthetic eye.

If readers take anything from my experience, it should be this: Please remember to heed any warning signs, push aggressively for information and get a dilated eye exam once a year. Melanoma tumors in the eye often have no symptoms and no pain until it is too late. The average person who doesn’t do any treatment for it will probably die within six months of the tumor developing. As The Post explained, the median survival once uveal melanoma has spread is less than seven months.

My journey began with seeing more floaters than usual in my right eye, followed by flashes of light. At first, I was intrigued by the flashes, but when they continued sporadically beyond a day, I realized something was wrong. When, after a dilated eye examination, my optometrist said he didn’t know what he was seeing, we didn’t stop looking for answers. I sought multiple opinions and opted for the most aggressive option. I have no regret in removing my eye, but I do hope and pray that research will soon make such drastic measures unnecessary in the future for others with large and aggressive melanoma tumors.

Mary Ellen Flynn, Silver Spring

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