----- Original Message -----
From: Emma
To: provletters@png.canwest.com
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:00 AM
Subject: Missing African Serval Cat

My oh my, what a lot of fuss over one missing Serval Cat. Schools keeping kids inside, a track and field meet has been cancelled, and everyone's on edge. The owner of this Serval has admitted the cat has a history of killing other domestic pets for supper, and that it will attack a child if given the chance.

How typical that society and politicians ignore the thousands of wild, exotic and dangerous animals kept as pets, until one escapes. Then all heck breaks loose and these same people speak as if exotic pet ownership is a new trend which now suddenly needs their attention.

Politicians at all levels have a responsibility to ensure their citizens' safety, and they have certainly failed in this regard by allowing so many thousands of exotic animals to be kept as pets. Let's hope this one escaped African Serval will finally be the wake up call our elected officials need,to completely ban both the trade and keeping of any exotic animal. Perhaps they should also consider the additional chaos and danger that would be caused one day when we finally get a large earthquake, and these types of animals escape. This one missing Serval pales in comparison to that havoc. I would also like to remind those is power that ignoring a problem until the media attention subsides, does not make the problem go away.

Emma Vandewetering
Port Moody, BC