Letters, February 22: Stop persecuting the humble mole

Feb 22 2010 by Sarah Bull, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT is a sad indictment of humanity that now, in the 21st century, the harmless mole is still persecuted (Examiner, February 16).

There is no research proving that moles do any significant economic damage to agriculture. Even if they did, what right have we to persecute them when farmers, supermarkets and consumers waste millions of tons of food every year?

Even less justifiable is the extermination of moles because they cause lumps in lawns and golf courses. Is the idle recreation of human beings more important than the right to existence of another species – one which plays an important role in the natural cycle of the creation of the soil?

Whether poisoning or trapping, it is still a barbaric practice which should be outlawed. It belongs in the days when gruesome gibbets of moles and other creatures such as stoats, owls and birds of prey were a common sight in the countryside.

Thankfully, protection has been extended to other victims of the farmer and gamekeeper, although the law is still too frequently flouted. Let us hope that soon the reprehensible trade of the mole-catcher will go the same way as the bird-trapper and the otter hunter.

alan brooke

Honley

A burning ambition

HAVING read in the Examiner the recent article saying that it now legal to have open air cremations I cannot describe my joy.

It means a complete reappraisal of my funeral plans but at least, after casting off this mortal coil, I can follow the traditions of my ancestors.

The only remaining problem will be – am I to be allowed to enter Valhalla in my flaming longboat via Scammonden reservoir?

sven bluntaxe

Dalton

Helping hands

I WANT to thank the two gentlemen and the lady who cared for me when I fell in Ramsden Street on Thursday morning, February 11 – the lady for finding my husband and phoning for the ambulance and the gentleman for getting a chair from Cancer Research.

Their kindness was really appreciated. The ambulance service and the care during my overnight stay in A&E were second to none.

margaret greaves

Honley

First with the news

A BIG thank you to Mr and Mrs Joshi and family, newsagents on Swan Lane, Lockwood, for working so hard this winter to get the news out up Hanson Lane where the roads were very icy.

A big thank you from all customers.

hanson lane customers

Lockwood

Shedding light on streets

IN the Examiner I read (on Saturday, February 13) a story headed ‘Streetlight cash: a boost for environment’.

Kirklees is getting a £66m grant from the Government to improve the borough’s lighting.

We in the Primrose Hill area don’t even have the orange sodium lights working at the top of Malvern Road and on the top to Stile Common Road.

The lights have been on only a few days since January even though they’ve been reported by several people.

Some work has been done on the light outside the Liberal Club but the stump of the old one is still there. A metal plate is half pulled up and wedged very dangerously. It is just on the edge of the footpath with wires showing.

Can the people responsible for part-doing this job please finish it off before someone gets hurt? It would be useful to see the big potholes before we hit them.

d smith

Resident of Stile Common

A hell on earth

FURTHER to two letters in the Examiner on Friday, February 12, from Mr A Smith and T Sosna regarding the Auschwitz-Oswiecim camp (on 65th anniversary liberation) – I readily agree to the facts and opinions raised by them.

A Smith stated that “stories and revelations about the atrocities inflicted by Nazis are still being unveiled 65 to 70 years on.’’

I wish to add to these two letters the fact that is known to Polish people and the church about a death of Polish priest Fr Maximilian Folbe, a Franciscan missionary well-known for his devotion to Our Lady. He was a prisoner in that camp, arrested in Krakow together with his colleagues. He was political prisoner No 16670.

As Mr Smith stated in his letter to the Examiner, for one prisoner who escaped, 10 inmates were executed. That was the terrible scenario that took place in Auschwitz in August 1941. The so-called convicts, clergy, professors, intellectual, ordinary people, victims of Nazi hatred of all nationalities and denominations including Jews, Polish, Romanies, etc, in the camp were asked to line up, counted and every 10th step forward.

In this case a prisoner called Mr Gajowniczek was called out to be locked up and starved to death in a death cell. He started to lament about his dear children being made orphans and a young wife left a widow.

Standing next to Gajowniczek was Fr Kolbe who came forward, asking to take the place of his compatriot. The offer was accepted.

Together with all convicted to death he was a model of strength, a leader in that death cell and an inspiration to all the condemned, leading prayers, singing hymns, hearing confessions, uplifting their spirits. After two weeks of starvation all died except Fr Kolbe.

Eventually the doctor had to give him an injection to kill him off. His body was cremated in the camp crematorium.

Fr Kolbe was beatified in 1971 and canonised in 1982. How many people suffered the loss, terrible pain, grief and destruction in that concentration camp? It was hell on earth. Will we ever learn the lesson?

sg

Shelley

Tough action needed

I READ with interest the article in the Examiner regarding the fire at a tip in Ravensthorpe.

You say that the tip had twice the permitted stock of rubbish and that enforcement notices were served on February 1, that the operator had been fined £1,000 last year for breaching conditions and there had been repeated warnings. Why on earth do the authorities pussyfoot with people who repeatedly flout the law, allowing them to act with near-impunity?

Clr Iqbal said (in your article) that ‘serious questions’ needed to be asked of the council in dealing with the Ravensthorpe site and its owner.

On a similar theme I note that the Castle Hill site may be reopened, following the last fiasco.

Could planning/building control (or whoever) be more vigilant this time if building is approved? They seemed to be asleep last time when the pub was pulled down.

A similar situation existed with Mr Sparkles’ mansion in Mirfield. an extension which proved rather more dramatic than envisaged.

barry fowler

Honley

Local knowledge

I WAS interested to note that Mr Weavill (Mailbag, February 16 ‘MPs of high calibre’) would like an MP who can hold the government to account.

In order to be able to do that, an MP should have an understanding of the problems that affect local people. As such it is useful for our elected representative to have experiences that reflect those problems.

For example, the MP should have a knowledge of those problems that affect employees of local manufacturers, problems with education, both at secondary and tertiary level, problems with public transport, problems experienced by both the young and the elderly.

Consequently the ideal MP would be someone who can speak with both experience and an understanding of these problems.

To coin a phrase, ‘look after the parish and the country and the world will look after itself.’

Fred Raine

Quebec

Kidney concerns

I WOULD like to point out to your readers that mental health services aren’t the only facility that is still sited at St Luke’s – there is also an extremely friendly and well run renal unit there which is attached to St James in Leeds.

This unit brings services closer to home for many patients who have to undergo invasive treament three times a week for four hours every week come rain, hail, sleet or snow and, while a new home has been found on the HRI site, funding to run this unit has been an ongoing issue for the last two years.

Once the new unit is up and running there will still be many patients from the surrounding area who have to endure journeys to the other side of Leeds to receive this life-saving treatment, even though one of the government’s main promises is to treat more people nearer to home.

Paul Taylor

St James's Kidney Patients Association, Golcar