SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS

First of all, thank you for informing the public on the school board vote taking place May 1—without you I wouldn’t have even known the vote was coming up.

And while the lack of voter turnout is appalling, this vote is not made very accessible. I drove by my polling place this morning and saw no signs indicating anything about the candidates, or that the polling place was open for voting.

Do we go to our normal polling places? Are there different places for the school board?

I am not trying to sound ignorant, but it is confusing and left me to drive by and not cast my vote. After this frustration, I looked online for information only to find that there was nothing indicating where to go to cast your vote.

I am in my 20s and I live in the city, but I do not have kids. I care about the school and the board, but the fact is that I am very busy and not about to waste half my morning making sure my vote is cast.

And although I commend Artvoice for providing the interviews of the candidates, your article was my only source of information. I suggest that for the next school board election you further lead the charge by providing us with information a little earlier. Then maybe more recent city residents such as myself will have a better idea of who the candidates are and where to go to vote (I don’t even know what district I live in, and try finding a map somewhere).

Clearly, the city schools and other media outlets are not helping us.

David Doerr

Buffalo

PET STORES

THAT SELL DOGS

As an avid Artvoice reader, I always enjoy the annual Best of Buffalo poll.

This year, however, I was disappointed to see Steve’s Pets as a nominee in the “Best Pet Store” category.

Unlike the other nominees, Steve’s Pets sells puppies—a practice that is denounced by the Humane Society of the United States and is widely considered unethical. That’s because virtually all dogs sold in pet shops come from puppy mills. The massive dog breeding operations that supply these stores often keep dogs in horrendous conditions for years—forcing females to produce litter after litter in small dirty cages with very little socialization or human contact. After they are no longer useful for breeding, the adult dogs are commonly killed while the puppies are usually sold in pet shops to unsuspecting people who just want a cute little canine companion.

This is why reputable pet stores do not sell dogs.

They recognize that there are millions of adoptable animals in need of homes and they choose not to participate in the puppy trade.

So, I encourage Artvoice readers to please reconsider their support of Steve’s Pets. The cycle of puppy mill cruelty can be stopped, but only if people are informed and choose to stop patronizing pet stores that sell dogs. There is much more information online at www.stoppuppymills.org including guidelines for finding reputable dog breeders and avoiding puppy mill scams.

When it comes to getting a dog, there are many alternatives to pet stores.

Locally, there is the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter (www.bflocityshelter.petfinder.com), the Erie County SPCA (www.yourspca.org), and Buffalo Pug & Small Breed Rescue (www.buffalopugs.com), plus lots of other great rescue organizations serving Western New York.

If you are looking for a particular breed, all you have to do is perform an online search for rescue groups that are breed specific, and you’ll be amazed to see how many deserving purebred animals there are who need homes.

Please help spread the word—rescue works!

Katja Geldhof

Buffalo

CORRECTION

In listing our Best of Buffalo nominees (Artvoice v6n16), we made a number of minor blunders and one monumentalone: In illustrating the nominees for best Polish food, we included a photograph that our art department believed was the lunch counter at the Broadway Market. It was, in fact, the counter at Fells Point Deli in Maryland.

Our own Eddy Dobosiewicz was the first to notice; as a co-founder of Dyngus Day Buffalo, well he should have. Eddy thought it was “somewhere in Cleveland maybe.”

But the first person outside our office to note the error, and to correctly identify the location in the photograph, was none other than Mayor Byron Brown, who dropped us a note last Wednesday. We profoundly regret the error and hereby offer to buy Mayor Brown lunch at Buffalo’s Broadway Market as a prize for pointing it out to us.

—geoff kelly