Let dogs breathe

June 28, 2003

Dear Sir,

Today, Saturday, June 28 was an animal lover's Nightmare.

The first encounter was seeing a dog left inside a car, while the owners were sitting in a restaurant, having breakfast, in a nice, cool, air conditioned place, meanwhile the dog is left in the car in the heat to suffer.

The second encounter was at the grocery store; two more cars parked in the sun at 1 p.m. which is the hottest part of the day, each car with dogs locked inside and the windows open about half an inch. What is wrong with these dog owners, how cruel and senseless can you be? This is common practice of late, I see dogs all the time locked up in cars to suffer.

Ten minutes can change your life forever. That's all it takes for fatal heat stroke to take the life of your dog.

And if this unfortunate and avoidable accident happens to you, thoughts of "what if" "why" and "how" will plague your mind without end. That's the second tragedy of fatal heat stroke in a dog - the psychological burden of knowing that it didn't have to happen.

The first tragedy is the suffering the dog experiences before unconsciousness sets in. When you try to imagine what the dog must feel when he or she is overcome by the rapid metabolic and sensory changes associated with heat stroke, you shy away from going too deeply. Unfortunately animal heat stroke happens too often, and is a preventable tragedy.

Humans can remove clothing, fan themselves and have a cool drink. Dogs can't.

When a dog pants, rapid air movement evaporates moisture from the large surface area of the trachea, bronchi and tiny bronchial branches within the lungs. This evaporative cooling effect lowers the body temperature - sometimes.

If the inhaled air is of high humidity already, the evaporation of moisture from respiratory track surfaces simply does not occur. And the fact that it is the temperature of the inhaled air is higher than the dog's normal body temperature, the inhaled air will tend to increase the dog's net gain of heat. The dog's exhaled air is 100 percent humidity, so you can see why any small and confined space rapidly becomes very humid once a panting and frantic dog becomes desperate for dresh air.

The purpose of this letter is to appeal to the public, if you see a dog left unattended in a car please make note of the car number and call the SPCA right away, you can save a dog's life. We need to help those who cannot speak for themselves.

DEBORAH A. MASTERS

Paget

Allergic to paying out?

July 3, 2003

Dear Sir,

Thank you so much for your front page article two Saturdays ago with regard to BF&M's sudden refusal to cover the cost of allergy serum vials.

Just to clarify the last paragraph of the article, BF&M now covers neither the cost of the visit for the shot, nor the serum vials. In other words, none of the treatment for allergies in Bermuda is covered by BF&M. They are one of the only insurance companies to refuse any cost of the treatment.

To add insult to injury, they notified us by letter dated June 10, 2003, that they were backdating their charges to March 1. Surely patients should only have to pay from the time that they were notified? Is it even legal to backdate fees in such a way? (Someone please help us!)

It's very easy to have the CEO of a company stand up and deny all knowledge of day to day operations (any company names come to mind?) However, as with the person in Warwick who wrote a letter to you this week, I was assured when I started my treatment two years ago that the cost of the vials was covered. How come insurance companies such as BF&M are able to cut coverage without decreasing premiums and get away with it? My insurance premiums should go down by $53 per month now that they have withdrawn their coverage!

Why are people so scared to question them? Maybe we should call for a higher level of regulation of these companies since they seem to have become a law unto themselves. Let's face it: the people charged with taking care of our health do not appear to have any concern for us.

I cannot tell you how many people have expressed support since your excellent article appeared. We should not give in, because it's not only allergy patients who are affected. Cut our treatment today, and what will they try to cut tomorrow? Let's not be afraid of the Big Bad Wolf - i.e. the machinery that is supposed to take care of our well-being.

STEPHANIE DARKE

Pembroke

Get to the root of crime

July 4, 2003

Dear Sir,

During this election campaign, everyone has adopted a reactive approach especially with what should be a major issue - crime.

If crime is allowed to continue the way it has in the last four years, even the rats will leave the Island. Everyone talks about beefing up police presence and stricter sentencing but really, how ridiculous is that? In the end you'll have more cops chasing more bad guys around .

Maybe they should examine why there are more juvenile delinquents committing violent crimes. It's not lack of youth programmes or deterrence policies, but something that is farther up the chain. Before this becomes a vicious circle that just grows in size year after year, let's peek in on the 12 and 13-year-olds. I don't have numbers to go with, only observation, but the amount of early teen mothers out there is staggering.

The kids produced this way grow up without a proper family environment and don't stand a respectable chance at buying into society's morals. The 14- to 19-year-olds running around with wanton disregard today, I would bet, a majority are the product of a youth mother with a brief sexual encounter, or from a disturbed family.

I noticed a mother at my four year old daughter's end of year celebration for pre-school, couldn't have been older than 17, and I nearly passed out when my wife told me she had an older child in P1. Who knows how many generations this goes back but this ugly pattern has to be stopped before anyone sees any improvement.

It's frustrating to hear public officials addressing the drug and crime rates and promising tougher controls, all to appease the public but is only one Band-Aid fix after another. Come on, if you have a flooding problem do you keep bailing or fix the leak?

PLUMBER

Sandys Parish