Dear Editor, Dog owners need to take responsibility for their part of not taking care of their dogs! (‘Stop dog culling’: SPCA threatens to leave Dog Committee if shooting doesn’t stop, February 24, 2023). They end up roaming and causing chaos for all!

Desex your dogs and stop relying on Cook Islands SPCA and Te Are Manu to do it for you, if you can make it to Rehab on your bike then take your dog on the bike to be desexed. If you see that your neighbour’s dog is being mistreated or having loads of litters report it! But also keep in mind SPCA only has one welfare officer, think about it, this person cannot get around to everyone in one day! We rely on your help too!

Iaana e kopekope me kare koe e tauturu ana!

Pauline Dean

(Facebook)

We wouldn’t have any dog problems if owners become honest with themselves. I can see in my own village dog owners becoming repetitive crimes – one dog gets shot the next day they get another one and so on, it’s endless. People that can’t look after their dogs properly keep having more dogs. They don’t feed them and it becomes a national problem. People are the problem from where I’m sitting.

Metua Andrews

(Facebook)

Hiring locals

We have lots of locals qualified from CITTI and many 10 years+ experienced local therapists in beauty massage and hospitality trying to earn a living to feed their Cook Islands families. It’s not the minimum wage they need, it is support from local businesses to give them the job first before hiring a new arrival.

I wonder how many locals were interviewed for the position now held by a Kiwi woman who has an existing business still operating in NZ? How does she get a job via a working visa with a local business before our local people? Why does a PR who benefits from living here decide not to sponsor and employ local people?

If she wants to learn and be part of the culture, how hard was it to have a cultural name? Manea Mobile – maybe? She uses her NZ business name so no local companies are employed to develop the new brand logo, printing etc. No input into the local economy from this business venture, just more competition in an already stretched economic time. There are many local therapists who already visit accommodations whose fathers have died from cancer and who have buried many friends. They live here permanently and would benefit from PR sponsorship.

Hire locals

(Name and address supplied)