To the Editor:

The article about the trapped cat raises a lot of questions about the rights of people over the rights of animals. We like cats, and usually had two or three of them in past years, and do not know any of the people represented in the article. However, after living through a similar situation with neighbors who “loved” their 22 cats and 32 peacocks so much that they allowed them to wreak uncontrolled havoc on neighbors and countryside, we must side with Mr. and Mrs. Wilborn.

To treat these people as criminals (hauling them into court, fingerprinting, photographing, fining them) – Isn’t this going a bit overboard? If they had been hunting a specific cat, with weapons, out on the street or on the property of the cat owner, the situation would be easier to understand.

The cat came to the yard of the Wilborns on their property. Do they not have a right to want to keep their property clean and odor-free? Do they not also have “rights,” such as the right to a yard and garden that’s not used as the local cat box by “pet loving” neighbors unwilling to control their pets – choosing the “freedom” of their wandering pets over the rights and reasonable wishes of their human neighbors? Have you ever smelled cat poo? I don’t suggest anyone do it voluntarily, or that you force your neighbors to “enjoy” it as they clean up after your wayward pets – it’s thoughtless and downright rude!

Making the Wilborns apologize, pay vet bills and go through the humiliation to which they have been subjected, all for the sake of a cat, who will not stay in its own yard, is putting an animal and its owners, above good reasoning, or even the slightest hint of being a good and responsible neighbor.

When the cat owner went into the carport for the trap, was she not trespassing? Dogs have to be contained in yards or pens, walked on leashes. If she really loved her cat, she would be a more responsible owner. Maybe we should remember the saying, “Your freedom (and your cat’s) ends where someone else’s nose, (property) begins.

Arlene Davidson

Canyon City