The Orange County Animal Shelter needs to send home EVERY adopted and reclaimed animal with a microchip ID and/or safety ID collar, but it elects not to do so.

The Humane Society of the United States stresses the importance to shelters of providing companion animals with identification tags and/or microchips because it is their “ticket home” if they get lost.

The Animal Protection Society of Orange County implemented a policy to microchip all adopted animals when it ran our county shelter (1979 to 2004). After the county government took over operations the microchip eventually was no longer included in the standard adoption package but made available for an additional $25. At the present time the OCAS shelter does not even have a policy to provide inexpensive safety ID collars for adopted/reclaimed animals as a low-tech, low-cost solution, especially for the cats.

According to Orange County Animal Services, seven times more dogs than cats were reclaimed by their owners in 2011. Most of the unclaimed cats are euthanized after a holding period at the shelter. Thus cats, notably, are penalized by the county’s decision to drop the microchip from the standard adoption package.

Many area shelters and rescues, including Durham and Wake counties, Paws4Ever, Goathouse Refuge and Independent Animal Rescue DO routinely microchip every adopted animal at no extra charge, and their adoption fees are very competitive with Orange County Animal Services.

Let’s hope that this election season will provide impetus to the commissioners to take another look at animal services and reinstate the microchip for all adopters.

Margaret Heath

Chapel Hill

Thursday night heroes

Please allow me to use your paper as my way of thanking the unknown but not unappreciated people that came to my aid on May 10.

I was eating supper in the K and W Cafeteria when I choked on my first bite of food. Upon being unable to dislodge the meat myself, I jumped up and made quite a spectacle of myself in the dining room.

A number of people, including my mother, attempted to do the Heimlich maneuver on me, at first to no avail. About the last thing I heard was a lady telling me that she was a nurse and try to stay calm, as she would help. I was told after I turned blue and passed out that she or perhaps a dentist that came over did get the piece dislodged from my throat. I came to as the 911 folks arrived. I am afraid in the confusion I didn’t get anyone’s name.

Those people saved my life! I do hope they read your paper and will accept my heartfelt thanks in print. The staff of the K and W also deserved kudos for their kindness to me. I am so glad I am here to write this and some true heroes on that Thursday night made that happen.

Cindy Geiger

Hillsborough

A greater good

We support the proposed changes to the Spanish/English dual-language program. As parents of children already in the program at Carrboro Elementary, we do not have any particular individual stake in the outcome; we are confident that whether the program changes or stays as-is, our family will continue to benefit.

We write instead as a reminder that the proposed changes would support a greater community good. In particular:

It would open up Spanish/English dual-language education to a broader population, expanding a valuable service to families beyond the boundaries of the few schools that currently happen to offer the program.

It would concentrate and thereby strengthen the program, allowing greater support and collaboration among dual-language teachers, greater "bang for the buck" in terms of resource allocation, and more student-to-student learning (especially for those students in the "orphan" classes in the non-Carrboro Elementary schools).

Finally, the plan would allow the district to plan ahead against future growth. In a district with growth as rapid as Chapel Hill-Carrboro, future redistricting is a certainty, and families that do not wish to leave their current schools now may soon find themselves in another school even if this particular plan does not pass. The opportunity to plan ahead--and not be caught by surprise--is valuable and prudent.

As we say, this letter is not about our family, which we expect to fare well in any scenario, but instead about the district’s opportunity to further strengthen an already-strong program and channel its rapid growth to the benefit of the larger community. We urge the school board to vote in favor of the plan as currently composed.

Joshua and Sharon Kolling-Perin

Carrboro

Community first

May 10, after further review, the CHCCS administrative team recommended (for the second time) FPG close its doors to the local children and become a Spanish Dual Language magnet school, which most of the current FPG children would not be able to attend. I was stunned.

Regardless of the overwhelmingly negative feedback that shows little support for the plan, even by DL families, the administration pushes forward to expand DL, and close FPG, the neighborhood school that has served the multicultural south side of Chapel Hill for half a century.

I support the dual language program as an excellent tool to narrow the achievement gap, but not at the expense of our community schools. CHCCS’ achievements are due in part to its academic success, but are also based on a core value of community. Community schools improve academic performance, promote family involvement, help create local social networks to support families, and represent a neighborhood meeting place.

This plan is careless and irresponsible to our children, and will not close the achievement gap. To dismantle FPG is contrary to many of the virtues of CHCCS, and sends the message to our teachers that the reward for hard work is job insecurity and disrespect. FPG did not have a voice, administration did not listen to families, and now administration is informing teachers of staffing changes before the board has even voted on this matter.

My son will enter kindergarten in the fall at FPG. I want him to go to a school that is representative of our community, and a DL magnet would not be. Our family, like many others, works hard to be able to send our children to CHCCS. We value our school and believe in a diverse, well-rounded, and community-based academic and non-academic education. As someone who attended CHCCS from K-12, and is now is about to send my first child there, I am extremely disappointed and alarmed at the lack of transparency, and knowledge of this community by Lincoln Center. If dismantling FPG is our only option, then we need to find people with better ideas.

Jamie Newnam Dunlap

Chapel Hill

Two bad outcomes

The prospect of war with Iran is frightening. So is the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.

That’s why I was so encouraged that the United States was among the world powers taking part in diplomatic talks with Iran on April 13 and 14.

Diplomacy is single most effective way to avert those two bad outcomes.

Patricia Ray

Chapel Hill