Enough is enough

I'm writing in to reference to those few, three or four, who have written in to the Eagle and the Inter Lake regarding the incident at Sliters where they have castigated Mr. Dalton for the actions he took in protecting his business and his employees. The writings in my opinion are not only ridiculous but if it had not appeared in an opinion column would be libelous.

These people have criticized a man who has been a pillar of this village for over three decades that I have known him and have patronized his business. I can assure everyone there is not a more loving, compassionate and helpful man then Mr. Dalton has been and is. It seems felonious to me to read such garbage that has appeared in response to this incident.

Most of those who would write such a manner without any knowledge of what a manager of any business is responsible for and who would act in a similar manner, I'm sure. This cat according to my understanding had already scratched and bitten two other employees in addition to Mr. Dalton himself. He has a responsibility to protect himself and his employees. Was the cat rabid? No one knew. There are many wild cats in this area of Bigfork and this was one. After the three being bitten it became mandatory that the cat needed to be checked for rabies. That is the reason the cat was taken to the pound. It could have been destroyed locally but it was incumbent to determine its danger.

Some self-serving public employee or volunteer there made the determination of which to write you folks write. To determine if the cat was rabid it would have been euthanized anyway. Mr. Dalton did what needed to be done to prevent more people being attacked. I dare venture not one of these self-righteous have ever seen the treatment for rabies on an individual. It is not a pleasant treatment. What is one of their children had come into the store and had been bitten and scratched. I can assure you these people would be the first ones into the attorney's office to file a suit because their child had been bitten and it was the business' duty to not allow that to happen.

Oh yes, call the humane society or shelter itself. We had a wild mother cat visit our place a year and a half ago and she had a litter of five kittens in our wood pile by our home. Did we call? Someone could come out in four or five days. Never happened. Finally I went to the shelter, put down a $50 deposit for a cat trap and in one day trapped the mother but no kittens. Took the mother to the shelter in the trap after she had defecated all over the car and the trap. I didn't know what happened to the mother but I took the trap back home and in the next three to four days was able to trap all of the kittens. They were extremely wild and would have claws and bitten if given any opportunity. We took them in a black box to the shelter along with the trap. We checked with them a week later and the kittens had been euthanized because they said that they could not be tamed, they were too wild. But this kind of time frame was not available for a wild animal in a business establishment nor should it be. I applaud Mr. Dalton for the actions he took in protecting his employees, his patrons and himself. He is far, far to compassionate an individual and a fine man to receive the kind of diatribe I have read in the papers. This community owes him a debt of gratitude for being the person he is.

Lee Wight

Bigfork