Opinion/Letters: Harwich animal regulations are heartless to pet owners
Many of us seniors are fed up with Harwich’s leadership. The new Harwich Board of Health animal regulations prohibits free ranging of domestic animals without fencing or barriers. Domestic animals may only free range on an owner’s property provided a barrier is in place that guarantees animals cannot roam onto a neighboring property. These regulations on all domestic animals are a major overreach!
There was enough outcry from the community about this regulation. It was brought to the town’s attention that household pets should not be included. The health director is OK with relaxing restrictions for ID-ing purchasers of tobacco and alcohol but when it comes to our pets, it fell on deaf ears.
Many of us are on shoestring budgets and cannot erect barriers or fences. Some of us use rollators and cannot bend down but we have taken our dogs unleashed on our properties for years without issue.
When a resident with three outdoor cats ends up in the hospital for three days on account of the stress and heartbreak these regulations have caused, enough is enough. It’s misleading and unethical when a town’s health director continues to hold herself out as a "doctor" when her degree is purely academic. A medical doctor knows the benefits pets bring to us. Many of us have lost our husbands. Some even our kids. Pets are important to us.
If the selectmen are going to allow this illegal attack on our pets, then it’s time for a major overhaul of both the selectmen and the town employees who neither care about the health benefits pets bring to us nor about those pets’ well-being.
J. Lynn Johnson, Harwich
Speeding, reckless drivers a threat to downtown Hyannis
I walked the entirety of South Street in Hyannis for over three weeks in January and February to visit my 75-year-old ailing mother, who was a Cape Cod Hospital patient for that period of time.
South Street has many 30 mph speed limit signs because there are a few schools located in that neighborhood. What should come as no surprise to any full-time resident who lives in Hyannis I would guess that at least 33% of the cars traveling South Street appear to be going, at minimum,15 to 20 mph over the posted speed limit.
Many drivers treat residential roads and side streets in Hyannis as though the village is one big highway. This issue is a year-round problem so the tourism that overwhelms Cape Cod can't be blamed for the horrific driving by some motorists I see on a daily basis.
I realize my letter won't make much of a difference in the reckless and unsafe operation of many motorists here. But, until this issue is taken more seriously all of the proposed road changes on Main Street in the Village of Hyannis will not make the roads of downtown Hyannis any safer for motorists, bicyclists, or pedestrians who want to hang out, eat, or shop in the heart of the village during the spring and summer months.
Bram Hurvitz, Hyannis
Dr. Zelman's standards of practice 'exceedingly high'
Dr. Zelman began saving lives on Cape Cod as a partner in my late husband's cardiology practice. I have known him for 30-plus years and worked next to him as a critical care registered nurse for roughly 15 of those years. His standards of practice are exceedingly high and "second best" was never an option. I know. I was there. The terrifying "Code Blue," announcing a cardiac arrest over the public address system, became virtually silent after Dr. Zelman's adherence to treatment within the "golden hour" became a widespread practice.
The "golden hour" refers to the period of time between the appearance of symptoms of a heart attack and possible death or cardiac arrest. If treatment occurs within this period of time, the effects of a heart attack can be reversed and a life can be saved. Cape Cod Healthcare would not be on the map if it were not for Dr. Zelman.
When it comes to choosing Lauf's 'bottom line' or Dr. Zelman's "lifeline," I doubt if any of us would choose the former.
Annie Campbell Dugan, Brewster
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Opinion/Letters: Harwich animal regulations a hardship for pet owners
