Regardless of what side of the Smiley-the-dog issue one is on, the consensus is that two years’ imprisonment in the “pen” brings out vicious behavior in any animal. Is it more humane to keep animals incarcerated so long like that, or euthanize them?

Anyone wanting to argue against the serous safety issues of certain breeds and exotic animals must do so in the face of continuing reports of vicious mauling of innocents when even the owners and their families have been victims. What should an intelligent and caring society do? How far can we extend the love we have for our own pets to an out-of-control population?

For decades, humane organizations have been sounding the alarm about the number of feral animals and unwanted strays they have to handle or euthanize. Sterilization has been their cry for a (questionably) more humane solution. Clearly, public safety must be the top priority.

So far locally, animals are the extent of our concerns. But it may not be long before we have similar issues about ourselves. What will we do then? An unchallenged and incontrovertible part of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” pointed out that the world’s population is rapidly overwhelming our planet’s resources. Who would have thought such a thing just a short time ago when many of us were young? (Yes, it was short.)

Our own America leads the world’s major nations in prison incarcerations. How should we deal with that? Recidivism rates demonstrate how penal incarceration brings out the vicious in people too. Is there a better way? We could put our heads in the sand ostrich style, but the view when we pull it out would be worse than it was for Rip Van Winkle. Currently it costs us about our average breadwinner’s annual salary for every single inmate. Talk about high taxes! There must be a better way.

How about what we’ve already done in Iraq. Gitmo, and Abu Grebe? Tsk, Tsk!

Al and Barbara Williams

Oak Harbor