WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES APRIL 18, 2019 13
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
DON’T GIVE THEM
BUNNIES!
Sadly, thousands of rabbits,
chicks and duckl ings are
purchased every year and given
as whimsical Easter gifts.
Often bought on impulse by
people with little awareness of the
commitment involved, rabbits, are
not short-lived animals. Properly
cared for, spayed or neutered pet
rabbits can live eight to 12 years.
Rabbits need as much care as
a dog or a cat. Litter boxes need
to be changed, cages need to be
cleaned and rabbits need to be
fed, watered and exercised. They
are also highly social and require
time and attention from their
owners. They should live indoors
as members of the family, and they
are not recommended as pets for
very young children.
The majority of rabbits sold
in pet stores also come from
large-scale commercial breeding
operations that confine animals in
small, dirty cages and fail to give
them adequate care.
If, after doing your research,
you decide a bunny is right for
you and your family, wait until
the weeks after Easter. Sadly, 80
percent of shelter rabbits are
abandoned Easter gifts but the
only humane alternative for
these now unwanted pets since
domestic rabbits cannot survive
outdoors on their own and hence
should never be set free.The same
goes for chicks and ducks. Many
ducks have been so domesticated
that they cannot survive in the
wild, so dumping them at the
community pond is inhumane.
Fowl abandonment is also a
crime in New York. Abandoning
a domestic bird is the same as
abandoning a dog or a cat.
Since ducks can live up to 10
years and chickens eight to 10
years, they should also never
be purchased as a whimsical
Easter gift.
Buyer also beware that Easter
lilies are fatally toxic to felines
and should never be inside of a
home where cats reside. Dogs are
not susceptible to the toxins in
the plant.
JoAnn Cave, Humane Society
of the United States volunteer
BEWARE OF AN
UNDERCOUNT
A severe undercount in the
2020 Census would dramatically
reduce the amount of federal
funding New York receives for
a range of critical programs
delivered by nonprof its –
jeopardizing the very existence
of these organizations, causing
them to cut staff, end programs,
and cripple their abi lity to
connect with underserved
communities. Twenty bi llion
dollars a year is on the line for
New York City alone.
A Communi ty Resource
Exchange survey found that
nonprofits fear they’ll be forced
to reassess how to ef fectively
meet needs if they have to scale
back, particularly because they
already operate on budgets
stretched thin due to years of
government underfunding.
We’re at serious risk of a 2020
undercount due to the late start
in funding outreach efforts, the
proposed citizenship question,
and apprehension around online
submissions. This would build on
the decade of under-investment
we saw because of the last Census
undercount.
Nonprofits are dedicated to the
city’s most critical issues, like
homelessness, hunger, health,
and criminal justice reform.
Further, their long-term presence
in many neighborhoods serves
as a valuable, trusted conduit to
achieving an accurate count, as
illustrated by a Quinnipiac poll
noting that New Yorkers would be
more likely to participate when
contacted by a local nonprofit.
While the $20 million recently
allocated in the state budget for
Census outreach and education
is a start, it is insufficient to
cover the cost required to do
appropriate outreach. Many
groups will need more support
to ensure outreach is successful
over the next year.
By investing more fully in the
nonprofit sector, New Yorkers
everywhere will be better off
and our city — and state — will
be a stronger place in which to
work, live and thrive.
Katie Leonberger, President
and CEO, Community Resource
Exchange
Email your letters to editorial@
qns.com (Subject: Letter to the
Editor) or leave a comment to any
of our stories at QNS.com. You can
also send a letter by regular mail
to Letters to the Editor, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All letters
are subject to editing. Names will
be withheld upon request, but
anonymous letters will not be
considered for publication. The
views expressed in all letters and
comments are not necessarily those
of this newspaper or its staff.
OP-ED
$1 makes the diff erence
BY RORY LANCMAN
Last week the City Council passed
a number of impactful bail
reform measures, including
my bill requiring the Department
of Correction (DOC) to create a
notification system for whenever
someone is held on bail of $1.
You read that right: $1 bail is a
reality in New York City. It is part of
the nightmare of our cash bail system.
DOC reported that 149 individuals
were held on $1 bail from August 2018
through December 2018.
One dollar bail can be set on a case to
allow a defendant to receive credit for
the time they spend incarcerated on
another open case or because of a hold
from another jurisdiction. It is merely
an accounting mechanism to allow
the court to keep track. However, if
the other case is resolved, defendants,
their family, and even their lawyer
may be unaware that $1 is all that is
preventing them from going home.
On too many occasions, defendants
spent extra hours or even days in jail
on bail less than $10, solely because of
poor communication. The Center for
Court Innovation in December 2015
reported that “the potential perverse
result of dollar bail, as stakeholders
explained, is that defendants or their
families or friends pay the larger
bail, are unaware of the $1 bail, and
defendants continue to be held on
what is essentially an administratively
driven bail amount.”
Unnecessary incarceration upends
the lives of those stuck in Rikers Island,
comes at great expense to taxpayers,
and is a tremendous blight on our
justice system.
To rectify this problem, the city
claimed that it created “a $1 bail alert
to notify both court personnel and the
defense attorney when a defendant
may be held solely due to $1 bail.”
However, the $1 bail alert the city was
touting was not actually operational,
and, as DOC testifi ed last year, only
incarcerated individuals were being
notifi ed about $1 bail.
Unsurprisingly, communications
problems still persisted with $1 bail.
Public defenders alerted the City
Council in December 2018 that the
process to release individuals — aft er
$1 bail has been paid — is littered with
delays that can take hours.
The horrors associated with $1 bail
must end. My bill requires DOC to
inform both an incarcerated individual
and their defense attorney when they
are being detained solely because
of bail under $10 and sets limits on
how long DOC can take to make the
notifi cation. This will ensure that DOC
is promptly communicating with all
stakeholders and hold the caity to its
commitment to create an eff ective $1
bail notifi cation system.
One dollar bail should not be all that
is standing between someone and their
freedom — and my bill will help make
certain of that.
City Councilman Lancman represents
the 24th City Council District based in
Fresh Meadows. He is also a candidate
for Queens District Attorney.
SNAPS
BAYSIDE IN BLOOM
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY ADAM MARIGLIANO
Send us your photos of Queens
and you could see them online or in our paper!
To submit them to us, tag @qnsgram on Instagram,
visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS
or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
/qns.com
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
/QNS.com
link
