BH-27 Correspondence – Jamie Recker
From: Jamie Bell <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, September 3, 2023 9:40 PM
To: Mayor <[email protected]>; Council District 1 <[email protected]>; Council District 2 <[email protected]>; Council District 3 <[email protected]>; Council District 4 <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Council District 6 <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Council District 8 <[email protected]>; Council District 9 <[email protected]>; CityClerk <[email protected]> Subject: City budget increase for Pitchford Animal Shelter
-EXTERNAL-
Dear Mayor Richardson, City Council Members and City Clerk, I have lived in Long Beach since 1981 and have worked in Long Beach since 1988, as a teacher in LBUSD. I am writing to urge you to approve an increase to animal care and shelter services in the Long Beach city budget. Please find the funding that our shelter staff desperately need in order to care for these animals properly. Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Our nation as a whole has truly failed animals. Let's have Long Beach be a leader in making moral progress, and let's start by making animals, sentient beings, a top priority in our city budget. In addition to a budget increase, I believe education is the key. I would love to see humane education as a required class in high schools across our nation. Students must be taught the importance of spaying and neutering dogs and cats, and they must be taught the importance of vaccinating pets so they don't end up dead or near death with parvo or distemper, placing an even greater burden on shelters. If this can't be an entire class, maybe it could be a unit in a required civics class. But that is an issue for a later date. I know there will be a meeting next week to approve the city's budget. PLEASE increase the Long Beach budget for animal care services!
Thank you,
Jamie Recker, teacher, Willard Elementary