Perth Voice Interactive

No place for boganism
I DON’T think it is totally necessary to use the term “bogan” in the subhead of the story about the vandalised statue (Voice, January 10, 2015).
You have no facts to say you know who did it, and by the sounds of it the sculpture was disconnected from the base and left at the site.
Geographically the location of the statue does not really sit in the middle of the “bogan catchment area”.
You could nearly say it may have been some highly educated third-year students full of drink who decided to climb onto the statue, and it fell over where they left it.
Intoxicated bogans would normally take it home for their lounge room (eg, street signs, witches hats and even flashing road signals).
I disagree with all vandalism in the community and think that it would be nice not to have a few ruin it for the rest of us.
It’s amazing that the council would even consider placing such a fragile, expensive work of art in this location. The first time I noticed it I thought to myself, “well, that’s not going to last long”.
My point is the use of the word bogan. These days everyone is so quick to use the phrase to stereotype anything bad that happens, “the bogans did it”.
Russell Healy
Delphine Ave, Dianella

Drop the hate
LIBERAL senator Cory Bernardi wants to water down Australia’s racial discrimination act after what’s happened in France.
Yep, the silence from Labor has been usual but Bill Shorten has taken it to a new level claiming you you don’t fight hate with hate.
Watching the news last Sunday night it had a clip on the Queensland election and, well, excuse me there was a Labor supporter holding a placard displaying “I hate the LNP”.
Bill, that’s not taking the issue seriously that’s more like ideology.
SM Livingston
David St, Yokine

Dogs get a voice
AFTER some questionable, pointless cover stores in the Voice recently, I was very glad to see the Voice give a voice to a voiceless growing community—mistreated breeding and unwanted dogs (Voice, January 10, 2015).
Whether preservatives in food, to better packaging, to sourcing of raw materials every industry is questioned to do things better and pet shops shouldn’t be exempt from this business cycle.
Consumers should ask for transparency and pet shops should be in a position to demonstrate absolute responsible business practices openly.
That said, I question how pet shops pay retail rents and wages and make profits without cutting corners on care. And how do they dispose of unsold teenage puppies?
Due to the time and costs to be considered, no pet should be an impulse purchase and pet shops primarily facilitate this.
Rescues are full of beautiful quality dogs and puppies who were ill-considered impulse purchases. Please contact rescues groups before supporting the pet shop industry.
Emma Chester
Deague Crt, North Perth

Stop the pet shops
I TAKE exception to the comment of pet store owner Rose Wilson in your front page article (“Biting back,” Voice, January 10, 2015).
She says all her store’s puppies come from “reputable breeders”. I think everyone should think long and hard whether a person who breeds animals for money because they don’t want one of the many thousands of dogs already in existence in refuges and foster homes can be called reputable, and whether such a person would be willing to sell those babies to a pet shop, never knowing where those puppies end up.
Rose Wilson also states she would be the “first to join Oscar’s Law if they went about it the right way”. I don’t think so, considering Oscar’s Law seeks to ban the sale of companion animals from pet stores and online ads.
All pet shops should be stopped from keeping live creatures. And perhaps the advertised “wonderful environment” that the Mount Lawley pet shop has could be used to help the dog rescue rehoming efforts.
Linda Upfield
Robann Way, Morley 

Happy melting
FROM our start as a colony Australia has been a melting pot of humanity populated by people who did not fit in their own country.
Whether refugees fleeing persecution or those in poverty, all sought a better life for themselves and a brighter future for their families. Australia has been built on the hard work of many generations of migrants.
Our diversity be it racial, religious or cultural is strength not a weakness it saddens me when people identify themselves first by religion, second by where their families came from and lastly as Australian.
We enjoy many freedoms in Australia but they do come with some responsibilities—we must respect the differences of others.
All have the freedom to seek happiness a fulfilling life dress how we like pray to a god of our choice we can voice our views and others can voice theirs.
With the rise of far right and other extremist groups the way to combat them is to find common ground through dialogue, not violence.
I hope to never see a time when people flee Australia for greater freedoms overseas. That would be a sad day.
Michael Whitworth
Caribbean Dve, Safety Bay