Letters to the Editor (Nov. 25)

Keep moratorium in place

Elephant in camp! With those words shouted by our guide, my wife and I scrambled to get inside our small, flimsy tent before the big bull passed just in front. The African elephant is the largest land mammal with some bulls weighing more than 13,000 pounds. I still kid my wife that trying to crawl under her cot wouldn’t have done any good if the bull had suddenly changed directions.

In 2014, the Obama administration established a moratorium on the importation of African elephant body parts. Now, the Trump Administration is considering waving that moratorium to allow trophy hunting of African elephants on the pretext that it will bring in more money for conservation efforts. By some estimates, a bull elephant brings in as much as $1.5 million in ecotourism in his lifetime, not considering his value to the gene pool. That’s real conservation.

Tell members of Congress and the President to not remove the ban on the importation of African elephant body parts. Rather than only seeing elephants in captivity, or trophies on a wall, future generations deserve to experience the exhilaration of an elephant in their camp.

Chicken farmers don’t get fair deal

I am a college student and I do not support the building of the Tyson plant in Sedgwick County. Like most other people, I want to keep industry in Kansas, but this kind of industry is a little nerve racking.

Tyson is wanting to get farmers to start in the chicken-raising business, which is great thing but for one thing. Tyson would own the eggs, the birds, the meat packing facilities, and distribution system. The only part they don’t own is the housing to raise the chickens for slaughter, and the reason behind that is they can’t make money in that area of the business. So they have farmers build the chicken houses and raise them for Tyson.

I have talked to a farmer from around a rumored spot and he doesn’t want the plant, either. He has seen what poultry companies do to the chicken farmer. What he told me was they give the start-up farms a big bonus and give less and less so they can pay the newer guys.

Tyson not welcome SW of Wichita

In reference to Dion Lefler’s article, “Lonely corner becomes ground zero in Tyson chicken fight,” no one seems know where this location started. It started the night the local news said it would probably be put south of an industrial park south of Wichita.

Speculation was that it could be at the corner of 71st Street South and Ridge Road or 87th South and Hoover Road.

Lefler needs to get out and travel around this area. It is not “A windswept stretch of not much.” Also, our wells are precious to us out here. Our groundwater is already being taxed by all the irrigation wells along with what the chemical plant and Murray Gill Energy Center use.

As far as I-35 only being 6 1/2 miles away, that route would take trucks right down the middle of Haysville’s main street, Grand Avenue.

This story was originally published November 25, 2017 at 4:57 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Nov. 25)."