Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
June 18
The Winston-Salem Journal on the animal shelter that accidentally euthanized a family pet:
What a tragedy that a dog turned over temporarily to an animal shelter was accidentally euthanized. It’s a nightmare for the family — and for animal shelter personnel.
There’s no feel-good element to the story, no happy resolution. All that anyone can do is try to prevent such an occurrence from happening again.
It began with a 16-month-old Australian Cattle Dog named Blaze owned by the Varker family. He nipped a child, apparently by accident, but seriously enough to require a visit to the doctor. The doctor was required to report the incident, which led to Blaze being taken to the Davidson County Animal Shelter for a 10-day quarantine — all proper.
But there was a mistake in the intake paperwork, Assistant County Manager Casey Smith told the Journal’s Jenny Drabble. “Due to the overwhelming number of animals coming in and a limited staff, especially on weekends, this dog was crisscrossed with another dog scheduled to be euthanized that probably looked similar,” Smith said. “It was an unfortunate mistake.”
“He was a puppy, pretty rambunctious, but not a dangerous dog at all,” Joey Varker, who has sons ages 5, 8 and 10, told the Journal. “Our kids, they don’t understand how or why it happened. Neither do we, but we can handle it better. They’re really broken up.”
“Now my 8-year-old son cries himself to sleep at night because of this mistake,” Varker told the Journal.
That’s completely understandable.
After the incident, Smith sought the family out and offered recompense, in the form of money or another dog. The family felt insulted by the gesture.
“I offered what I could do to make it less painful for them, but obviously we can’t undo this,” Smith said.
Of course, losing a good pet like this is confusing and painful for Blaze’s family.
It’s also got to be painful for the employee or employees who made the error. People don’t go to work for the animal shelter because they dislike dogs. They’re drawn to the work because they like animals and want to help them. Those involved are probably crying themselves to sleep, too.
In the wake of the incident, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture is investigating. And the shelter is looking at a number of internal measures to prevent such an occurrence in the future, Smith told the Journal. They include matching dogs set to be euthanized to a smartphone picture taken at intake and possibly putting tags on dogs’ ankles or an orange dot on their shoulders with animal-safe paint, to avoid confusion.
But the real tragedy is that, in our enlightened age, the intake number at this shelter and others throughout the state is still so high. Like many county shelters, the Davidson County Animal Shelter is stretched thin on resources and kennel space, Smith told the Journal. About 40 to 50 “bite dogs” are taken into the shelter each month for quarantine, he said.
That’s too many.
This is a result of owners’ failure to neuter and spay their animals, then letting them run wild.
It’s more important than ever that pet owners take responsibility for themselves and for their pets by neutering and spaying them, by properly socializing them and by giving them the time and attention they require to be healthy.
None of the shelter’s proposed actions will bring Blaze back, but they might prevent others from being in his position.
Online: https://www.journalnow.com/
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June 17
The Charlotte Observer on a bill that would order North Carolina law enforcement agencies to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests:
A bill that would force N.C. sheriffs to more fully cooperate with federal immigration officials not only is potentially harmful to the sheriffs and the communities they serve; it’s based on a faulty premise.
House Bill 370 would compel local law enforcement agencies to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally. Some N.C. sheriffs, including those in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, have ignored or vowed to ignore these “detainer” requests from ICE, which can keep suspects in jail up to 48 hours beyond their release date.
Supporters of HB370 point to a Mecklenburg County case last month in which a 37-year-old Honduran man, Luis Pineda-Ancheta, was involved in a nine-hour SWAT standoff shortly after being released from Mecklenburg County jail. Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden, who was elected last November, has vowed not to cooperate with ICE, and his department did not honor an ICE detainer request for Pineda-Ancheta.
After the incident, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox accused McFadden of creating a public safety risk. McFadden countered that it’s not the sheriff’s responsibility to determine if, when and how someone is released from jail. McFadden is correct. That responsibility falls on magistrates and judges, who in this case authorized release of Pineda-Ancheta on a $5,000 bond before the SWAT standoff, then again on a $65,000 bond, which was posted by a bail bondsman, the sheriff’s department told Observer reporter Jane Wester.
HB370 supporters say such situations would be avoided by requiring sheriffs to honor detainer requests, but those requests are not backed by court orders, and they can place law enforcement in legal jeopardy for holding people without a warrant. Several U.S. counties stopped honoring detainer requests after an Oregon woman successfully sued her county in 2014 for violating her rights by holding her for ICE.
The bill also could harm North Carolina’s cities and towns, particularly immigrant communities whose members already are hesitant to call the sheriff or police when they need help. Said Buncombe County sheriff Quentin Miller in a statement Friday: “If ICE comes into our community and creates division and mistrust when we need cooperation and mutual understanding between our immigrant and minority communities and local law enforcement, then we are all worse off for it.”
There’s a better path to keep potentially dangerous undocumented immigrants off the streets. Local magistrates, along with the Superior Court and District Court judges who hire and supervise them, can and should develop or revisit pre-trial release guidelines that give magistrates and judges discretion over if and how someone is released from jail. Those guidelines could involve notifying ICE officials in situations that might be particularly hazardous to communities and individuals.
Instead, NC Republicans are intent on a bill that interferes in how sheriffs try to navigate the delicate landscape of federal immigration laws, and ICE is misleading North Carolinians about its necessity. It’s another example of how ICE officials and agents are too often willing to push legal and ethical boundaries in enforcing immigration laws. North Carolina’s sheriffs are one check on that dangerous behavior. Lawmakers shouldn’t take it away.
Online: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/
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June 15
The Fayetteville Observer on the departure of Fayetteville State University’s chancellor:
James Anderson stepped down as chancellor from Fayetteville State University, announcing his decision at Thursday’s meeting of the school’s Board of Trustees.
The surprise announcement led to tears from some staff at the meeting and sent shockwaves through the Bronco community. In a news release, the university emphasized that he was not resigning but stepping down after 11 years as chancellor. He intends to take a sabbatical and could eventually return in a teaching role at FSU.
Whatever Anderson’s future plans, FSU is losing at the helm one of the more significant leaders in its 152-year history. Anderson, the school’s 11th chancellor, can fairly claim he helped the historically black university take a big leap into the future with a modernizing approach focused on preparing students for an increasingly interconnected and global economy. Meanwhile, he built a connection with students that was real. Their reaction to his stepping down showed it. “I didn’t see it happening,” one senior said. Said a recent graduate: “I thought he had a little more time to give.”
Perhaps Anderson relates to students because like most young folks, he did not always have things figured out and he had to overcome challenges — like many of his young charges at FSU. A strength of most historically black colleges and universities is that they take chances on students that might be overlooked elsewhere. It’s one way you build a community.
Anderson would tell the story of how he had inconsistent caregivers as a young child and ran with street gangs in Washington, D.C. He was a pimp by age 9, he said. Things did not began to smooth out for him until he was taken in at age 12 by the Andersons, a janitor and secretary who would officially adopt him at age 18. He would later go on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University and has served six academic institutions over a 44-year career.
“I have shared my story with different student groups,” Anderson said in a 2012 interview with The Fayetteville Observer. “They are really shocked. They think when you reach a level of a chancellor, if you are an intellectual, that you had a pretty easy ride along the way.”
Anderson has broad interests that range from vinyl records to Tai Chi to Marvel comic books and collectibles. But he is an educator at heart and it is the field of expanding education where he has made a lasting mark at FSU. As he noted in a letter he wrote Thursday to staff and faculty, many of the school’s online courses and degree programs rank in the top 5 in the country, and research faculty has developed five patents, with more waiting in the wings. Under his tenure, the school has developed partnerships in China, Poland and several African countries. The school is also one of the pioneers of the $10,000 degree, at a time when college is becoming increasingly unaffordable for too many.
Anderson’s love of education extends to history, and he has been a leading advocate for the N.C. Civil War & Reconstruction History Center, overcoming skepticism in the broader black community by highlighting that the proposed museum will tell the real truth about the war area, including the stories of African-Americans.
His advocacy for the center is one of many ways this D.C. native’s story has become interwoven with our own and we hope this goodbye is only see you later.
Online: https://www.fayobserver.com/
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