Dear Editor,

This letter is in response to Tom Cuthbert (Vice President of the Chilton County Humane Society), who wrote recently of the dog shooting in Verbena.

He asked for a public discussion about the incident. Well, I’d like a public discussion also—about the many times I’ve called the Humane Society begging for assistance with stray and vicious dogs and basically being told to deal with it myself.

I have lived here 10 years and have called the Humane Society at least once a year, asking for help with a different stray animal in my neighborhood. Each time, I have been told that because I live outside city limits there is nothing they can do for me (other than to offer a trapping cage that I must set up myself and give a $100 deposit for).

I applaud Officer Moses. He is doing what the public pays him to do: protect them! I know that killing anything doesn’t come easy, and I’m sure Officer Moses didn’t take his actions lightly. But how would Officer Moses have felt if he had walked away and this dog in question had harmed someone’s child?

I know how I feel every time another stray is dropped off in my neighborhood. I worry that my child may be bitten while playing in her own yard and end up taking rabies shots or worse.

I understand that the Humane Society is under funded and understaffed. I have learned that those of us living in rural areas must sometimes fix our own problems (oftentimes forced to do what Officer Moses did). But I think that it is unconscionable that Tom Cuthbert has the nerve to second-guess a law officer.

Mr. Cuthbert is very involved in this case but has never come to my home any of the times I’ve called the Humane Society. Next time I have a problem with a dog, I’ll be calling Officer Moses.

Bonny VanVechten, Clanton