Dangerous dog attacks

The story about the dogs attacking and killing sheep and goats at the Wishing Star Petting Zoo (2-26-26) was heartbreaking and it brought back the terror I experienced when my little dog, Smokey, and I (an 81 year old woman) were walking in the afternoon at the park in back of the East Library on January 22nd : three loose dogs came running at us very suddenly and attacked.

While I was struggling to help my dog, a young woman ran towards us shouting that her brother had let the dogs out. Eventually she was able to pull back the main dog attacking (the other two dogs backed off) long enough for me to grab my dog and run back to my car, where a nice man helped me to get my dog in the car and rush to the Animal Emergency Hospital, where he had serious injuries and multiple puncture wounds.

The next day I went to Urgent Care to have my hand treated, which had been bitten, and I reported the attack to the HSPPR. During the stress of the attack, I I was unable to ask for the woman’s name or address, but I would like to find the owners of these dogs and get some help with the financial expenses I’ve had to incur.

If anyone in the area (houses on South side) is aware of the owners of these dogs (one white, one brown and one dark, all wearing collars with tags) please call HSPPR’s Animal Control.

While at the Animal Emergency Hospital, another dog arrived suffering from another vicious dog attack – that one so serious it was questionable as to whether they could save him. Since then I’ve heard many stories of dog attacks, and I urge people if they have a dog whose temperament is such that they could attack animals or people, they should take extra efforts to make sure their dog is never off leash in public.

Jeri McGinnis

Colorado Springs

This crucial bill

Large AI data centers are increasingly threatening American communities, from unfairly raising electricity costs on hardworking families to exacerbating harmful air pollution.

Utility companies have consistently spiked ratepayers’ bills in order to accommodate data centers’ colossal energy demand, with nearby communities seeing price hikes of up to 267%. This is a major concern for Colorado, where residents are already struggling to pay their utility bills.

Furthermore, data centers burden nearby neighborhoods with unhealthy air, light, and noise pollution. Pollution from data centers could be responsible for 600,000 additional asthma cases in the U.S. by 2030, a potentially disastrous trend for Colorado, where ozone and wildfire smoke already threaten air quality.

Unchecked data centers can also consume up to five million gallons of water daily, equivalent to the usage of entire towns, yet are often not required to disclose such information. Data center development could seriously strain local water supplies in a drought-prone state like Colorado, currently experiencing record-low snowpack.

Given the severe threats that unchecked data center development poses, Colorado must pass Senate Bill 26-102. This key legislation establishes essential guardrails so that data centers will not unfairly raise utility costs for Colorado families or threaten our water resources, air quality, and community health.

If passed, SB26-102 will require new large data centers to invest in clean energy to support their own demand and provide annual reporting on their energy and water usage.

As a student who cares deeply about the future of this state, I call on my fellow Coloradans to contact their legislators in support of this crucial bill.

Luca Maes

Colorado Springs

You break it, you own it

While the uproar over the justification for war with Iran continues, unabated; it might be useful to consider the roots of the antagonism between our two nations.  It goes much further back than the 1979 revolution and the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran.  The seeds of the conflict were planted way back in 1953 when the U.S. and Britain, in a joint undercover operation, instigated a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, the democratically elected and American-friendly Iranian Prime Minister.  The reason, then as now, was oil.  The Iranian parliament had recently enacted legislation to nationalize their oil industry which, until then, had been tightly controlled by British and American oil interests.  The Shah, the titular head of state, subsequently assumed total power over the nation and ruled with near despotic powers, including a secret police, with the full support of our government until his overthrow by the Ayatollah Khomeini-led revolution.

It’s interesting to speculate that, were it not for the 1953 coup. Iran might have been, today, a modern non-secular democracy and a strong U.S. ally.

In 2013 we formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the 1953 coup as one of our foreign policy initiatives, including paying Iranian protesters and bribing their public officials.  In short, we played a role in the chain of events leading to the takeover of Iran by religious extremists and the war that we now find ourselves engulfed in.

I think it’s important to consider the significance of history when evaluating President Trump’s accusation that our NATO allies are cowardly for their reluctance to join the war.  It reminds one of the sign in the china shop “If you break it you own it”.

Steven Schwartz

Colorado Springs