We've got mail!
'Bringing Care

Home'

To the editor:

Hundreds of area residents of all ages receive care in their home from professionals. Providing care in the home is about offering choices, empowering families to utilize health care options that best fit the needs of their loved ones in a setting that is most comfortable to them - their homes. Home care empowers patients to be active participants in their care.

In-home care has advanced far beyond basic professional nursing and home care aide services. Providers offer a wealth of physical, occupational, and speech therapies; nursing services; personal care; respite care and hospice services.

Community Nurses Inc. extends its services into the community by offering bereavement, Alzheimer's and diabetes support groups, educational programs, and flu clinics. Areas of specialty nursing provide expert care for cardiac patients, diabetics, infants and children, and those dealing with mental health issues.

Telehealth technology provides enhanced contact with patients who require close monitoring or those who live in hard-to-reach areas.

Community Nurses Inc., a non-profit home health agency established in 1929, provides services to the residents of Cameron, Elk and McKean counties.

Ann Bauer Community Nurses Inc.

St. Marys 'Acute Venison

Deprivation'

To the editor:

Those who abuse hunting often cause problems for the entire hunting fraternity, and that usually is due to lack of common sense or restraint.

The issue of deer hunting brings out varied feelings, and there are some that I find senseless and silly.

One is, "If the PCG is going to make more doe permits available, I'm going to get them."

Another is, "The family really, really, needs the meat."

Well, I really, really, don't know of anyone who will fail to survive until spring if they don't have a doe or two or three in the freezer.

It is general knowledge that the local deer herd is a shell of its former self. There are some pockets with decent populations, but they are most often on, or adjacent to, large tracts of posted land.

Some of those tracts, for all intents and purposes, have become private game preserves for the owner and his cronies, and not available to you and me.

I'm old school and like it. I have no range finder, GPS, video cameras wired to trees in the woods, no four-wheeler and so many of other things now considered "necessities" by many hunters.

I fully believe that if I fail to take a buck this season, I will not succumb to acute venison deprivation.

Leon E. Hillyard

Eldred Trapping Is

Cruel'

To The Editor:

Fur trapping season is underway in Pennsylvania and wildlife is being subjected to treatment so inhumane that if the same thing were to be done intentionally to domestic cats or dogs, the trapper would be facing animal cruelty charges.

Trapping is a largely unregulated activity. During trapping season there is no limit to the number of coyotes, foxes, minks, muskrats, opossums, raccoons, skunks, and weasels that a trapper can kill, and in 2006, trappers reported killing more than 400,000 of the animals.

A trapper may leave an animal trapped and unattended for up to 36 hours, during which time the animals have no shelter from the elements and no way to protect themselves against attacking predators.

The Pa. Game Commission caters to the tiny number of licensed trappers despite the dangers inherent in recreational trapping because it is funded in part through the sale of trapping licenses and the excise taxes affixed to the cost of traps and trapping-related equipment.

Since those who participate in wildlife watching activities outnumber trappers by an overwhelming margin, state agencies should enhance wildlife watching programs which support local economies far more than its violent and harmful trapping programs that do little more than bring suffering upon the state's native wildlife.

We urge the Game Commission to abandon its stone-age recreational trapping seasons and in their place nurture the potential in wildlife watching programs which can build a shift in the paradigm toward the protection, respect and admiration of wildlife and their habitat.

To learn what you can do to help, please contact Wildlife Watch at wildwatch.org

Joe Miele, Vice President

Wildlife Watch Inc.

New Paltz NY Aggressive Driving

Crackdown

To the editor:

Pennsylvania State Police have joined in a campaign to increase enforcement of aggressive driving laws (speeding, tailgating, reckless driving, etc.), safety belt and inspection laws; and commercial driver laws.

The campaign also increases awareness programs for commercial drivers and the general public.

The motor carrier industry plays an important role and we encourage it to ensure that drivers are well rested, buckle up and do proper trip planning.

Drivers of passenger vehicles need to understand how commercial motor vehicles operate and know their limitations.

Christopher J. Murphy

Chairman Governor's Highway Safety Administration