Letters to the editor

Animal society responds to letter on declining shelter conditions

In response to Mr. Doug Wheeler’s April 13 letter to the editor in the PVT:

Dear Mr. Wheeler,

I am sorry to hear you feel the Pahrump Animal Shelter and Nye County Animal Control are in decline. I am also sorry to hear of the loss of your father, Clark Wheeler as he sounded like a compassionate sheriff’s deputy who went above and beyond to make his community a better place to live for both the animals and citizens.

You mentioned that your father worked as a sheriff’s deputy under then-Sheriff Wade Lieseke all through the 90’s. I am not able to ascertain by your letter whether you grew up here, however, assuming that you did, you know that it was a very different place and time (for better or worse…). Our human population here has more than doubled and the pet population has therefore probably quadrupled. With the changing times, there have come some rough bumps in the road for our animal community.

Not just in Nye County, but all over the United States, towns, cities and states are cutting back on or eliminating animal services. Our county-funded animal services are yet another casualty of these times.

Funding for the Pahrump Animal Shelter was essentially eliminated in 2015. One individual and a handful of volunteers were caring for the animals from July of last year until March of this year after the animal shelter was closed to the public.

Approximately fifty dogs were still in protective custody at that time, so the county was still responsible for their ongoing care. Our current animal control officers (all four of them for the entire county) have had specialized training and care about their fellow citizens and the animals that they are in care of. These dedicated individuals are currently under the direction of Nye County Emergency Management.

The Pahrump Animal Shelter, after several glitches and much controversy (what would Pahrump be without controversy?), will be officially re-opening to the public on April 30, 2016. It will be managed and operated by a private, nonprofit organization, Desert Haven Animal Society, and will not receive direct funding from Nye County.

I sincerely hope that your late father, Clark Wheeler, is not shedding many tears as you suggested in your letter, but instead is grinning with pride as he looks down from Heaven and watches what is happening to his beloved Nye County Animal Shelter. Please, come see for yourself.

Suzanne Zervantian, co-founder

Desert Haven Animal Society

It’s about money, not about water conservation

Rob and I attended the water board meeting on Monday, April 25, 2016. I approached the podium to ask a question, to wit:

I have been around long enough to know that established laws can be amended and repealed. I am an “existing well owner” and according to “the plan,” I am exempt from the new rules and limitations. If the water “plan” is made official, what guarantee do I have that sometime down the road when there are turnovers in board personnel, I am safe and locked in against revisions, amendments and repeals that will impose limitations upon me.

The unanimous answer: None.

So now, we have the key problem with this “water plan” out there in writing. (Hopefully, it’s in writing. I also learned at this meeting that the minutes are not verbatim or even close.) The assurance from the board that existing well owners are exempt from meters and limitations is window dressing. It’s a lure to get this thing passed. And later, “Oh, sorry. We changed our minds.” Well that’s nice. If I have no guarantees, then it should not be passed at all. Slay the monster.

There were a lot of feel-good words tossed around at this meeting. “Preservation of natural resources,” “wise water conservation,” “protecting our water supply” and so forth. And yet, there was even more chatter about growing the population of the valley by half, two times, ten times and more. All we have to do is cut back by 75 percent the current residents’ supply of water and spread it around thinner. Then we can build and sell, build and sell. This tells me one thing: This has nothing to do with Mother Nature, preserving our natural resources or protecting our water supply and everything to do with money. In fact, I can always be allotted as much water as I want or need by paying extra for it. (Oh and by the way, there is plenty of water, we learned, to grow marijuana in our community.) The underlying plot is so obvious. Down the line, put a meter on my well that I paid to install, I pay to operate and I pay to maintain. Take something away from me that I already own and sell it back to me. Meanwhile, build and sell and make the big bucks. Clever.

Citizens, beware when the government has come to help.

Linda DeLaMare

Reader comments on Myers column on global warming

Regarding Dennis Myers column “Preparing a lousy future for our children”, (PVT April 13) I wanted to tell him why I am a global warming denier.

I first got wind of “global warming” in 1989 from a Scientific American article, and it scared me. I began paying serious attention to the weather, and researching weather in the past. I was on the Internet in the early 1990’s and was able to find a lot of information. What I discovered was that the climate has been changing during the entire history of the Earth since it was formed.

As we moved into the late 1990’s, I was a believer. There was no doubt that things were heating up. I found a 500,000-year chart of the average temperature of the Earth. It showed a cyclic pattern of ice ages, and heating. There was an upward trend to the heating, but that went back 450,000.

The chart also showed that we are on the precipice of an ice age. Already predictions of no snow in the early 1990’s failed in that we are still getting snow, and heavy at that in the northern latitudes of the USA. They changed the vernacular from global warming to climate change because of the cooling in the last 15 years.

Science is empirical. It only deals in fact that can be replicated. When science lies, it can shock the foundations on which we live. Just like the lie of cold fusion, the lie in the IPCC’s report on global warming that Michael Mann wrote purporting his “Hockey Stick Chart” put a big red flag up in my mind. That report, exposed in Email Gate, should have sent a shockwave into the community, but it didn’t. Just like lemmings, the report was blown off. I saw a chart that plotted CO2 levels with temperature. There was no direct correlation to a rise in CO2 to a rise in temperature.

A few years ago I saw a National Geographic special on global warming. They featured an island in Micronesia where they claimed that the sea level had risen 3 feet. I couldn’t understand how the Pacific Ocean could rise in Micronesia, and not in Santa Monica, California. I looked at the geography of Micronesia, and found that the land there is sub-ducting into the Marinas Trench. That the sea level is not rising, the land is sinking.

Even if we cut our CO2 levels to zero and buy up all the carbon credits, China and India have no intention of reducing their fossil fuel use. In fact, in China they have televisions in the public areas that display the position of the sun, because you can’t see it.

The largest CO2 polluters are volcanoes, and that is if you consider CO2, a pollutant; which the EPA now does, which is a joke because CO2 is a life-necessary gas in our atmosphere for plant life to exist, no less every breath we, and every other mammal exhales has CO2 in it. The Sun is probably the biggest player in our climate.

With all the “Chicken Little” yelling about global warming, air quality, water quality, and the like, no one it talking about they’re being too many humans on our planet. Why? Because the global economy, or the new world order, needs human growth to keep their pyramid scam going of wealth transfer from the rich nations to the poor nations. All this to equalize the standard of living throughout the world … but it isn’t our standard, it’s about 600 percent lower.

So YES, I am a global warming denier.

Pete Ehrlich

Reader believes Horn got off too easy

Shame on Judge Kim Wanker. The headline on the Wednesday April 27, PVT, that former Sgt. Horn received a suspended sentence and fine.

What kind of news is that for the citizens of Pahrump, especially the younger people?

It is bad enough he stole medication, lied about it being expired to the person giving medication to him, then finding medication (pills) in uniform. Also, $23,000 worth of allegedly stolen narcotics in his police car, and receiving 19 to 48 months’ suspended prison sentence and five years’ probation.

This is a serious arrest, he should receive prison, then while on probation, clean up trash.

Sandra Jones