TO THE EDITOR:
After The Daily Tar Heel’s Sept. 29 article citing citizen concern about the cats at the Orange County Animal Shelter, I received an email from Elliot Cramer opposing suggestions to make the cats’ situation more humane and to provide them with a better chance of being adopted.
Instead, Cramer recommended unadopted shelter animals that are killed be used for teaching/research.
Cramer, a retired UNC psychology professor, was asked in 2009 to resign his position as a faculty adviser to Youth for Western Civilization.
It seems after he was informed campus fliers were being passed around against the student group with his personal contact information, he responded with an email saying, “I have a Colt 45 and I know how to use it.”
His email and his suggestion to use shelter animals for research are both disturbing.
It is also disturbing that Cramer is on the Board of Directors for Friends of the Orange County Animal Shelter, along with Pat Sanford, former director of the Orange County Animal Shelter. Sanford also has gone on record criticizing those asking for shelter improvements for the cats and kittens.
Don’t the poor cats and kittens at the shelter deserve better “friends” than this?
Chapel Hill Town Council member Laurin Easthom, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and a dedicated group of citizens have all spoken up for improvements and invested time and energy on this issue.
