PETS provide wonderful companionship for many people. We often hear about the responsibility that comes with being the owner of a dog. For example, the dog must be on a leash when taken for a walk and cannot run free in suburbia.
So why do cat owners think the same rules don't apply to them and their cats? With the drought affecting country as well as suburban areas, birds are being displaced and seeking shelter, food and water wherever they can.
At our place we fill bird baths daily and as a consequence have sighted numerous birds that normally would not reside here. This is a smorgasbord for a local cat. The ground feeding birds such as the whip bird don't stand a chance.
Native skinks and lizards are also targeted by a cat which is hunting by instinct, not because it hasn't been fed by its owner. Feral cats have been identified as a major threat for native wildlife but a domestic cat allowed to roam is just another 'feral' cat.
Please, keep your cats indoors for the sake of our native wildlife. If you allow your cat to roam you do own a feral cat.
Margarete Ritchie, Brandy Hill
Timing way off track
PERHAPS not everyone intending to travel by train between Newcastle and Sydney in the period from December 25 to January 13 knows of planned track work affecting every train on that line during that period.
Usually this isn't a great inconvenience, as train replacement buses keep extra travel time to a minimum. However according to the Trip Planner site, this time travel will be far more difficult. Unfortunately Trip Planner shows dates only up to a fortnight ahead, so detail for most of this period is not available yet.
But on Sunday December 29, for example, there will be a choice of two options for travel between Newcastle Interchange and Central: train, bus, another bus, then another train, for a travel time of 3 hours and 53 minutes; or train, bus, train, for travel time of 4 hours 53 minutes.
People do understand that track work has to take place some time, but nearly 5 hours each way between Sydney and Newcastle? Come on Transport NSW, you can do better than that.
Margaret Galvin, Kotara
Pinch of plastic problem
ON Monday we watched a program on SBS showing how the world is starting to be engulfed by plastic in the food chain for animals and humans, some people are trying to do something about it but seem to be losing the battle with no authorities helping.
From what I saw this will be worse than asbestos because its effect is so more spread around the world. It appears to be the world's fasted growing industry, it is already taking hold in the Artic and Antarctic and has been found in the deepest part of the oceans.
In some countries it is polluting the beaches and waterways, severely killing and limiting fish stock and animals, sea and land, and birds. The problem seems to have been swept under the carpet by the governments of the world and mainstream media, as usual when the problem becomes too big we will all pay.
This appears it will be a bigger problem than climate change bushfires around the world. The present Australian governments, state and federal, will act when too late
Ray Dean, Thornton
Jet on in Mr Lee
TO my knowledge, Martin Lee has not visited Newcastle since grand final day in 2018. What are we as Jets members asked to make of this seeming lack of interest from the owner of our club?
Is it not his duty to articulate to our fan base, firstly his future commitment to the club and also, to outline a strategy that will see the club be at least competitive going forward? Club members have been fed a constant stream of statistics that are supposed to suggest that we should be doing better than we are, truth be told there is one statistic that never lies and that is our position on the league ladder.
As we approach the January transfer window it is quite clear that the team needs to be strengthened if this season is not to become one more heartfelt disappointment for the Jets' loyal fan base.
If no effort is made one can only assume that our owner is willing to accept mediocrity.
Eric Burns, Belmont
Mysteries of the earth
I OBSERVE the exchange of views between Peter Devey and Richard Mallaby (Letters, 17/12). The fact that ice ages or glacial events occur regularly about every 100,00 years implies to me that a regular inter-planetary phenomenon exists.
Scientists tell us the earth mysteriously moves out of its orbit and tilts, thus resulting in an ice age.
Wouldn't it be more believable that an alignment of planets and/or other heavenly bodies would exert an influence on the earth's attraction to the sun, similar to an eclipse, around every 100,000 years?
Those same scientists also tell us that we are currently at the end of the interglacial period and should now be descending into the next ice age.
However, thanks to human activity they say, we have held back the next ice age for the time being.
Does this mean we should burn more coal to survive?
What happens when all the fossil fuel is burnt?
George Paris, Rathmines
Container confusion
I REFER to the NSW government's policy decision in 2012 that a container terminal will not be developed at the Port of Newcastle before Port Botany reaches capacity followed by Port Kembla.
This decision was the basis of the government's container freight strategy for NSW.
The government, in 2013, required payment from Newcastle Stevedores Consortium (NSC) for container volumes exceeding a threshold level at the Port of Newcastle, as a condition of negotiating with NSC for developing a container terminal.
This negotiation concluded in November 2013 without an agreement.
The government, in 2014, entered into a contract with Port of Newcastle Investments (PoN) that requires PoN to pay the government for container volumes exceeding a threshold level at the Port of Newcastle, when PoN develops a container terminal.
Payment the government required from NSC was the same as the payment now required from PoN.
How can it have been a government policy decision in 2012 that a container terminal will not be developed at the Port of Newcastle, given there was a negotiation in 2013 with NSC, followed by a contract in 2014 with PoN, for developing a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle in both instances?
Greg Cameron, Wamboin
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@theherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name and suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words. Short Takes should be fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.
SHORT TAKES
THE young lady mentioned on the front page of the Newcastle Herald today ('The moment a courageous sexual assault survivor, 13, confronted her attacker', 18/12) deserves a medal for bravery of the highest honour. We wish her well in the future.
Fred Saunders, Waratah West
AS well as statistics on injuries and deaths, the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission website publishes disciplinary action decisions. Despite industry claims of reform, I believe some participants continue to be found guilty of drugging their dogs with substances including amphetamines, caffeine and arsenic. They claimed to love their dogs like family when the industry was going to be banned. Greyhound racing is still pretty poor at both welfare and integrity.
Susan Berryman, Wallsend
TO Pat Scott (Short Takes, 17/11) this John McLennan was born in February 1925 and went to Cardiff Public School. I am sure we would have been friends. Thanks for the compliment.
John McLennan, Charlestown
THE photo of Greta Thunberg sitting on the floor of the train surrounded by bags looking tired and uncomfortable as she journeys home across Germany is a perfect demonstration of the PR people who created her image. She and all her crew were travelling on first class tickets. This says it all.
Sandy Buchanan, Largs
GENERAL manager Jeremy Bath claims he has brought "stability" to the role, compared presumably with his predecessors ('Bath says $465K pay comes with stability', Herald, 18/12). Can he expand on this? Like shifting council administration to a difficult to recognise new headquarters in the "new CBD" (pure spin). Perhaps he can inform us of his previous occupational experience and qualifications as well. A perusal of his working background indicates to me almost always a communications officer, often unkindly referred to as spin doctor, with minimal experience in local government. His comments in the Herald justifying his salary sound like classic spin.
Keith Parsons, Newcastle
AFTER reading of Jeremy Bath's 19 per cent pay rise over two-and-a-half years, it is little wonder that workers feel unfairly treated when they see senior executives/CEOs being rewarded with performance bonuses for doing their job well (or doing what is their job), when the average worker fights to receive a pay rise of 1.5 to 3 per cent. To then read how he 'talks himself up' further rubs salt into the wound.
Paul Wagner, Floraville
SCOTT Morrison is in Hawaii on holidays while we have a very serious issue regarding bushfires. PM Gough Whitlam stayed in Australia when cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin in 1974. PM John Key stayed in NZ during the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. There is a lesson there to be learned.
Dennis Petrovic, Rutherford
KEN Stead (Short Takes, 17/12): with bullying as with beauty, the eye of the beholder is an unreliable guide as to what is true or real.
