
{"id":7126,"date":"2009-09-18T07:52:06","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T15:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=7126"},"modified":"2009-09-18T07:52:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T15:52:06","slug":"letter-voyce-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/09\/18\/letter-voyce-responds\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Voyce responds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Quite contrary indeed, if your concern for public health is founded on pocketing meager financial savings from not getting your livestock immunized against disease.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I read with interest Ms. Prince\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s column (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wrong on goats,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sept. 3) about how her goats don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t require immunization (and she shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay a cat- or dog-type license fee). I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll rest my case for mandatory urban livestock immunization on the contrariness exhibited in her editorial and her behavior.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In a perfect world, those raising livestock wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be made to follow USDA or NCCE vaccination guidelines. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do it on their own, holding the health of their animals above their small financial investment towards public health. Vaccinations don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t harm the animals, so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only talking about money. <\/p>\n<p>When I lived on a rural farm and raised goats, we vaccinated the goats (against more than just rabies), despite the lack of close neighbors. It was better for the goats.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Prince\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conduct exemplifies why mandatory livestock vaccinations in urban settings should be required. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always count on dabblers doing the right thing when it comes to public health. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My animals will never spread disease\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is more than hubris. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad public policy.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As to the misleading and inaccurate motives and labels imputed to me by Ms. Prince, I have to smile.<\/p>\n<p>If only Ms. Prince had stopped by before she wrote her editorial, then she could have seen my gardening. No, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t call it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153urban homesteading.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plain, old-fashioned gardening, even if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on about the same acreage as Ms. Prince\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Quite Contrary Farm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned that I harvest four kinds of fruit, six types of herbs and over 16 varieties of vegetables.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned I garden organically. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done so since before she was born.<\/p>\n<p>She would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned I garden without offending my neighbors, maintaining the dreaded (by the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153incognoscenti\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suburban landscape look.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned I sequester carbon while enhancing the soil. I capture carbon from the air by lawn fixation, bag the lawn clippings, compost them, then I enrich my nutrient-challenged red clay by tilling in luscious organics. (Yes, I admit it. I enjoy the oxygen released by my lawn.)<\/p>\n<p>She would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t proselytize or self-congratulate about the benefits of my lifestyle.<\/p>\n<p>Oh well, you can lead a goat to water, but you may get head-butted for your efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Brian D. Voyce<br \/>\nCarrboro<br \/>\n<em>Voyce is a candidate for mayor of Carrboro<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quite contrary indeed, if your concern for public health is founded on pocketing meager financial savings from not getting your livestock immunized against disease.\u00c2\u00a0 I read with interest Ms. Prince\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s column (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wrong on goats,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sept. 3) about how her goats don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t require immunization (and she shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay a cat- or dog-type license fee). I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll rest&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7127,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7126\/revisions\/7127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}