The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Letter to the editorThe Oakville Beaver467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St.,Suite 206,Toronto,Ont.,M5B 2M7.Phone (416) 340-1981.Advertising is accepted on thecondition that,in the event of a typographical error,that portion of advertising space occupied byP the errnoneaousl itiemz,toignethegr w ithc a areatso naoblew allownance fror signature,will not be charged for,but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at thee arptipselimcaebnletsE dr iaotortriae l da.nTde ahcdvleirtn ispienug. cbonlteinst ohf teher O arkevilsleerves the right to categorize advBeaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.It has taken several days to get over my incredulity at the cerebral recklessness ofNEIL OLIVERVice-President and Group Publisher,MARK DILLSDirector of Production the new bylaw regarding roaming cats. Clearly, you are trying to address two separateMetroland WestMANUEL GARCIAProduction Managerissues, one having nothing to do with the other than to contain the word feline. TheDAVID HARVEY Regional General ManagerCHARLENE HALLDirector of Distributionproblem is the feral cat population and your financial solution is to penalize law-abid-JILL DAVISEditor in ChiefSARAH MCSWEENEYCirc. ManagerROD JERREDManaging EditorWEBSITE oakvillebeaver.coming (past tense now) domestic cat owners.DANIEL BAIRDAdvertising DirectorDomestic cat lovers/owners have their cats neutered, tagged (either chip or necklace)The OakvilleBeaver is a division ofRIZIERO VERTOLLIPhotography Directorand see to immunization annually. They are first to contact their vet should anythingSANDY PAREBusiness Managerunusual arise with their cats health. Our felines are well fed, cared for and loved. CatsRECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BYthat take some time outdoors have a very small territory, are protective of it and respect:Ontario Community Canadian Community Suburban Newspapersthe territory of neighbouring cats. With outdoor activity, they remain fit, alert, sociableNewspapers AssociationNewspapers Associationof Americaand good garden company. All but one of my rescued and roaming cats (11 in total) haveTHE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR:lived into their 20s and have been humanely put to sleep at lifes end. Indoor catsbecome overweight, fitness-deprived and indolent.Why on earth are you penalizing pet owners for taking good care of their animals?United Way of OakvilleHow do you find and fine the irresponsible cat keeper who does not have a tagged,ATHENAchipped, vaccinated nor neutered animal? AwardThe bylaw in no way addresses a plan to deal with feral cats other than providingadditional funding for the humane society from residents already doing their civic duty.How is the feral cat population going to be culled? What is going to change from cur-rent methods, if at all? Also, how much more will this cost the taxpayer to enforce thebylaw? Is this a prudent use of taxpayers money?Humanely trap and remove cat from their property and bring it to the humane soci-ety?! Let me refer you to a January 2008 article in The Oakville Beaverwritten by theOakville Humane Society regarding the trapping and relocation of wildlife. Its illegal.The article refers to traps being left for a long time causing animals to be exposed tothe elements or harassed by other animals. The stress on the animal can cause it toinjure itself while trying to escape. You can imagine how much more dangerous thiswould be for a domestic house cat not used to being outside for any extended period oftime. What next? As a wildlife and domestic animal lover, I can report more birds commit suicide onmy bay window than my cats have ever caught. Darwinian Theory? The cats do, how-ever, keep the mice and June bugs at bay in their territory. With construction at thesewage plant on Lakeshore, they also dispense with the fleeing rat population, much tothe relief of our neighbours.Why did the Town or Oakville Humane Society not use its mailing list of RegisteredCat Lovers to solicit input for the new Draconian bylaw? By ignoring this group, youhave alienated staunch supporters of the OHS.So, how do pet owners solve the problem and angst you have created? I would sug-ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVERgest neighbourhood joint custody of our mutually shared and loved pets (dogs and cats).GECKOS GIVE: The Oakville Geckos triathlon team raised $10,000 for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign.Alternatively, you could readdress the bylaw to penalize the true culprits and define anHere,Darryl McKenzie,left with cheque,YMCA of Oakville president and CEO,and Lindsay Williams,right withaction plan with proper funding to deal with feral cats. The problem you have created ischeque,chair of the Strong Kids Campaign,officially receive the donation from the team.Pictured are John Arbon,not going to go away.Paul Allingham,Mike Bermingham,Steve Connor,Victor dos Santos,Diane Gordon,Carl Messenger-Lehman,LESLEYREID,OAKVILLEMichael Parker,Tyler Messenger-Lehman and Rachael Messenger-Lehman.Saying goodbye to some old friends and hello to a headachesmaller units for the house, a steal attial owners for another three. Originally off-white, it had come toe recently said goodbye to some old friends. Although,$130. look like an ink-blot psychologists use in personality testing. Wedin the parting process, we experienced considerableWell, I got home and plugged thembeen threatening to replace it for six years, but each time wedWmore headache than heartache.into assorted electrical outlets and dis-consider doing the deed wed conclude: why bother, we have (a)First off, we said goodbye to the mouse colony our friends,covered that the rhythmic sounds theyan old dog (b) a young pup (c) another young pup, and none ofMickey and Minnie and their adorable offspring thats beenemit are surprisingly loud. I was unsurethose hounds would think twice about wrecking any new flooringcalling our basement, and the spaces between our walls, home.whether these noises would make micewe put down.Ah, country living. Every year we endure a home invasion byrun, but after listening for an hour, IOur old hound passed on. The pups matured. And we couldmice. We know we cant let the mouseketeers stay: despite theirknow I was sure tempted to bolt. In par-stand the carpets no longer. On a shopping jag, my wife boughtinherent cuteness, they are disease carriers that use any odd andAndy Juniperticular, the large one in the garage sound-hardwood for the bedrooms. And then, just a few days ago, a homeinappropriate surface as their toilet, and that wreak untold dam-ed intimidating, like a ticking time bomb.invasion of a whole other kind occurred. Hardwood Flooringage wherever they live. A while back, a neighbour discovered thatA few days passed. My headache eased and I began to no longerPeople.mice had unceremoniously shredded his electrical wiring.notice the noise proof that you can indeed become immune toWed forgotten how much noise these people (and their infer-Subsequently, every year we bait the killer traps with crunchyanything. To boot, we have not seen a single mouse (or mousenal tools) make, how much chaos they cause. My heads throb-peanut butter and, in the days to come, we cart cute little carcassdropping). We believe that Mickey and Minnie have left the build-bing. Were living in a veritable dust bowl. We dont know whereafter cute little carcass out of the house, feeling awful and inhu-ing.anything is. And we have monster days of cleaning ahead of us.mane basically thinking of ourselves as neck-snapping execu-On the heels of saying farewell to our friends, the rodent-bor-Who knew that saying goodbye to old friends would be this dif-tioners. Honestly, there has to be a more compassionate way. ders, we had to say goodbye to another old friend: the carpet weficult?Enter Mr. Hardware Guy (not his actual name) who, this timehave had in three of our bedrooms since, well, forever.Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, con-around, told me about humane mouse deterrents, nifty devicesIt was the original carpenters carpeting, thin, cheap and easi-tacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed atthat emit sonar bleeps that apparently send rodents running fromly abused. Wed given it the business for seven years, and the ini-www.twitter.com/thesportjesters. your home. I bought five a large unit for the garage and fourwww.oakvillebeaver.com OAKVILLE BEAVERThursday, January 27, 2011 6