Letters to the Editor: Monday, 26 September, 2016

GROWING PROBLEM: Cats abandoned at shelters should be put to sleep says a reader. PHOTO/FILE

Abandoned cats should be euthanised

The SPCA could go a long way towards the control of cats.

The word is euthanasia.

If they euthanised all the cats and kittens that get left on their doorstep, which is a fast, painless procedure, there would be a vast reduction in the number of cats that cause problems.
Expense shouldn't need to come into it, because the money saved by not having to feed these hordes and having them neutered and microchipped could easily cover the costs.

I am a cat lover, which is why I don't like seeing them caged for weeks and months at a time at the SPCA.

I don't go there any more, because it is heartbreaking to see them like that.

The SPCA is doing no favours to those poor animals by keeping them alive, just to keep them in cages, which goes against the very nature of the feline species.

And we should keep in mind that it is spring, and the beginning of "cute kitty season" when the SPCA is going to be inundated with kittens and puppies.

They will need a lot of food, if they don't use a bit of common sense and put these poor animals out of their misery.

No, it is not cruel. One little prick, no worse than inoculations, and the cat is no more.

R Smith
Tauranga

Carpark issue

It is not a question of carpark plan could be abandoned (News, September 19), it must be abandoned.

There is a dire shortage of nighttime and weekend parking in the downtown central Mount area and that has been confirmed independently.

Tauranga City Council has transferred the Phoenix land from its traffic section to reserves but it must not take the whole area just to access "development monies".

A registered valuer has confirmed the going rate for central Mount land is around $2500 a square metre so simply allocate the 1000sq m piece adjoining Harcourts, including toilets and Mainstreet offices at a value of $2.5 million, demolish the toilets and resite the transportable Mainstreet offices so they face toward the carpark and construct a stage in front of it (Mainstreet proposal).

When there is an event like farmers market etc simply close off the carpark. The rest of the time it remains carpark.

Replacement of 58 additional nearby carparks is daydreaming.

Mount Mainstreet, Mount businesses and local Mounties don't want a bar of this TCC staff-driven inane project.

Next up the Mount I-site, Civic Centre Project and tidal steps.

R Paterson
Matapihi