Your recent front page article (“Pet spay, neuter services’ cost eyed” Dec. 27) was a missed opportunity. Rather than do an article with a Boston dateline, you had only to look in our own backyard for New England’s largest spay/neuter clinic.
Since opening the clinic in 2009, Dakin Humane Society has spayed and neutered more than 90,000 animals ranging from Great Danes to mice and everything in between, drastically reducing the number of unwanted animals in the Pioneer Valley. With the recent addition of a second surgical team, that number will continue to increase. Low-cost community clinics, subsidized by private donations, are readily available. Detailed additional information is available on Dakin’s website: dakinhumane.org/.
When I was a reporter (I know, “OK, boomer”), I would have been handed an article like that from a wire service and assigned by my editor to find a local angle. I would have interviewed area shelter managers and veterinarians to find out whether what was true in another location was also applicable to our circulation area. In those days it meant at least half a dozen phone calls rather than just a couple clicks on the internet.
And incidentally, a page one, bylined story was something that was hard-earned (I still have my first one framed and hanging in my office). The Gazette is our local paper. Please keep it that way. Great local stories are all around us.
Marianne Gambaro
Belchertown
The author is a volunteer at Dakin.