Delaware should step up the fight against puppy mills

Time to fight puppy mills

Puppy mills are cruel and inhumane, yet they continue to widely exist. In a puppy mill, female dogs are bred from the first time they go into heat, and are continually bred until they can no longer reproduce, which is around the age of five.

At this point, the dogs are viciously killed with cruel methods such as shooting, drowning, or smashing their head with a rock.

Puppies sold in pet stores often come from mills that use inbreeding to make purebred puppies. Inbreeding can lead to genetic diseases in the puppies, which can cause illness or even death. One can just imagine the emotional suffering from pet owners whose puppies suddenly become very ill or die.

Unfortunately, some pet stores will dishonestly tell customers that the puppies they are selling come from reputable breeders. These stores know the horrors of puppy mills and do not want their customers to know the truth about the store’s sources for puppies.

Inhumane breeding practices and dishonest retailers must be stopped. Most states have not made any progress in passing laws to shut down puppy mills. We need our legislators to pass legislation to outlaw puppy mills.

Families should adopt from local animal shelters, or buy from reputable breeders or pet stores that are recognized by the Humane Society as a “Puppy Friendly Pet Store.” If people stopped buying puppies bred in puppy mills, then this cruel industry would be shut down.

—Jonathan Colton, Wilmington

Chicken industry is a boon for Delaware

Delaware’s chicken industry has humble roots — a single farmer, Cecile Steele, raised a flock of 500 chicks for meat instead of the 50 she’d ordered as egg layers in 1923. Her success sparked countless other entrepreneurs and innovators who followed in her footsteps.

From that modest beginning, a major economic engine in our state has flourished.

New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the Delaware chicken community created $1.02 billion in value last year. That means all the Delaware chicken hatched, raised, and processed in 2017 sold for more than $1 billion as it left the shipping dock. One dollar out of every $30 of chicken processed in the U.S. is earned in Delaware.

Growing income from raising and producing chickens flows directly to the family farmers who, across Delmarva, earned $256 million in income in 2017. That rising income benefits chicken company employees, whose Delmarva-wide wages came to $752 million last year.

That $1.02 billion of purchasing power, in the wallets of everyone who makes chicken possible, fills the cash registers of every business that farmers, chicken company employees, and their family members shop in. Rising chicken income means more tax revenue for Delaware, too. When the chicken community’s value grows, the prosperity of Delawareans grows with it, even if they aren’t in the chicken business themselves.

Delaware’s farm families are some of most regulated farms in the country, and we realize regulations are necessary. We work with local and state government officials to ensure the health and well-being of the animals, the environment and our neighbors, while at the same time responsibly growing an economic engine all Delawareans can be proud of — and all Delawareans benefit from.

—Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc.

Wilmington's roads in horrible shape

The streets in Wilmington are in horrible shape. Whoever is in charge of the repairs after the street has had work done needs retraining.

Try driving north or south on Washington Street from 18th to 40th Street. Horrible! The citizens deserve better. 

—Sandra Taylor, Wilmington

Letter made me laugh

I read the letter from Carine Lankford from Slaughter Beach regarding the changing of town names, I just wanted to say that there are not too many things these days that make me laugh (except my grandchildren) but her letter actually made me laugh out loud. I cut the letter out of the editorials and will read it whenever I need a chuckle for the day. 

—Dyanne Gerhardt