Pushing back against pet priorities
July 12th, 2007, 1:07 pm · 9 Comments · posted by Joaquin
Chisme was all teary-eyed Sunday morning when he read about how Mayor Ahumada use to share his milk bottle with his German shepard when the mayor was a kiddo. The love little Pat had for animals is now being transported to the present, where he serves as the mayor of a city of almost 200,000 residents, a Brownsville with nearly as many potholes as residents, and police services straining to serve a growing community.
So good thing, right, that Mayor Pat’s top priority is finding a home for Fifi and Rover. Good thing, tambien, that while local residents squawk about the condition of our streets and the traffic piling up on them, that Ahumada is at the flea market grande by the expressway every weekend, targeting illegal sales and cruel treatment of animals at the pulga.
Pat’s pet peeve has led to $2 being added to monthly PUB bills to help pay for animal shelter operations and emergency pet evacuation plans. Man, when Chisme was a kiddo, his family left their gata, Roxy, behind at home when Beulah was coming this way in 1967. Y que? Roxy survived just fine, pero these days, pets need an evacuation plan.
All of this is too much for one Marion Carter, who wrote The Herald that he’s not paying Pat’s $2 pet fee. Marion says he’s not including the extra $2 in his utility bill “because it’s not for services rendered.”
And if PUB cuts off Marion’s power for not paying the two bills, Carter says “the lawsuit that follows will be a dilly.”
Count Chisme in when Carter goes to trial and when TV legend Perry Mason or local lawyer Brian Janis asks the mayor why poor Marion is suffering with no A/C because he doesn’t want to help pay for Rover’s evacuation plan. Maybe Pat will spin out the story of sharing his teta with Rin Tin Tin.
Ay bueno, time to get stuck in traffic on Boca Chica, if I can get through the potholes on McDavitt. You go Pat! Get those mean people at the pulga!
July 12th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
ok, so you can actually not include your payment of 2 dollars? i am confused. if that is the case then i will never EVER pay the 2 bucks. iam sorry but i don’t have pets and if i did i would never ask other people to help pay for it’s evacuation. this mayor is a joke. if he really thinks that being a mayor is doing only what you want to do not what your constituents want, then this guy will be gone soon. he is crazy! i am going to check with reliant or cpl.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
wow:
1. Go ahead and check with Reliant and CPL, you will find out they
charge a lot more than the PUB rates including the $2.00 fee.
2. The $2.00 is not for pets only. Please refer to the Bville Herald.
3. Do you realize how many Brownsville homeowners pay BISD taxes
and they dont even have kids ??? And I bet it’s more than $2.00
they pay in BISD taxes !!!!!
4. How much of your Port of Brownsville tax dollars got thrown away
to consultants(?) I bet it was more than $2.00/month.
5. The problem with pets in Brownsville is due to neglect from
several of our previous administrations. Pat is the first mayor who
wants to do something about pets. Let’s give him a chance.
6. I also complain about potholes, but honestly, how come our
previous administration didn’t take care of the problem ???
Ed
July 13th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Is this what the Brownsville Herlad has reduced itself to? Some windbag pretending to be a writer and using SPANGLISH terms to try to entice and or fit in with the community with a blog named Chisme??
Oh God Please let this be a joke. Yes, a joke on the Community. This person is making Brownsville look Ignorant and Stupid, not only with the way he/she writes, but withe minumum of information as well.
Should we be the city without a heart? Maybe that would suit us better? Fee’s to cover necessities for a city have ALWAYS been around, this is nothing new. The only difference now, is that Mayor Ahumada is saying and doing what many before him refused to do, for fear of what people would say or think. Primarily that he is an Animal Lover and NOT a wimp, for skirting the issues as other Mayor’s have done so in the past.
What’s wrong with a $2.00 Hike? What, you can’t give up your weekly Combo at lunch? Your trip to the Movies? Extra money is spent everyday on different things that are wanted, not needed.
As a city and a community, we have an existing service (Animal Shelter) that is not doing it’s job in favoring Adoptions. The BSPCA is the one holding the Adoptions and having to do all the legwork to gain funding.
Pets are not nuisances, they are members of someone’s family. If you don’t want to pay the fee, move elsewhere!
July 13th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
3. Do you realize how many Brownsville homeowners pay BISD taxes
and they dont even have kids ??? And I bet it’s more than $2.00
they pay in BISD taxes !!!!!
You ask why? Well, an educated citizenry is better than an uneducated citizenry. I have pets and have had them my entire life. However, how on earth can you equate children to pets?
4> How much of your Port of Brownsville tax dollars got thrown away
to consultants(?) I bet it was more than $2.00/month.
EXACTLY and this is why we are questioning and outraged with more taxes and no real plan.
July 14th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I did not ask WHY we pay BISD taxes. I know why. I have paid thousands of dollars of BISD taxes and will continue to do so because I know the wonderful job BISD is doing, nevertheless,
there are people in Brownsville (not me) that complain about paying BISD taxes when they dont even have kids, just like there are
people that complain about paying TWO dollars per month for
the project that covers emergency services, fine arts and pets.
Maybe you should, like anybody else that is questioning the $2.00 fee/month, get involved and learn first hand where your $2.00 is
going to be spent and help with a real plan. I am going to help Mayor
Pat Ahumada and it’s going to be with more than $2.00.
By the way, why don’t you all come forward, chisme included, and give us your real names.
Edgar C Trevino
July 14th, 2007 at 11:20 am
PAT FOR PETS
I think that it is a bold move that our Mayor is doing for the pets of our City? If a program was put into place where all pets had to be registered then this City would be more pet friendly.
There are more pet thefts going on each day and when the thief finds out the pet is spayed or neutered then they just kill the pet as it is no good for breading.
If you treat these puppy farms the same way as you do drug dealers buy confiscating their property and vehicles if they are caught then stamp out the pets sales at the Flea markets and on the roadsides then there will be more control within the pet stores.
All pets will have to have a chip inserted and then the owner’s details can be added to the chip at a later date this way there will be more control of the movement of pets.
Get more info by visiting thetowncryier.com
July 17th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Well Dorothy, I’m sorry you feel that way about Spanglish, but that is the culture down here. Just because you don’t understand it does not mean it is ignorant and stupid. Your comments are making the rest of Brownsville (those who aren’t ingorant and stupid) look narrowminded and racist. You have to realize that some people in Brownsville are not as privileged as you are. Two dollars may mean dinner for a family of three in some cases. It’s easy to ask us to give up lunch or anything else for that matter when you and I can spare the money, some people can’t. Are you peeved because all these stray dogs are knocking over your trash cans at your upper class Rio Viejo neighborhood home? The pet adoption issue is a noble task that Mayor Ahumada has taken on, and I commend him for his active role in it. I respect Mr Ahumada (I met him once) and I think he will be good for Brownsville, but I think there are some things that he as well as you need to be a little more sensitive about. The reason why not many people adopt pets is the same reason many don’t want to pay the fee…they can’t afford it.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:08 am
That is fine then they do not become pet owners.
The biggest problem here are the puppy farms and the people that seel these pets at flea markets also the trashy pet store owners who store pets for greed.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Shepherd. German Shepherd.