May the guilty humans meet the same gruesome fate: Francisco Alvarado's article about the Muscovy ducks being murdered in Doral made me sick ("Foul Duck Death," January 13). And yes, it is murder. I sincerely hope the bastards who poisoned and gassed those defenseless animals, and the asshole who allowed it, suffer the same fate, if not something worse. I'll never understand how human beings get off thinking they're better than other creatures on this planet when in reality they are so much lower, as they prove every single day.

How difficult could it have been to relocate those poor creatures? We can put people in space but we can't round up some ducks and bring them unharmed to another location? Instead they're gassed and poisoned. Same deal with the rabbits who were shot to death at the airport. Baby seals are clubbed to death for their skins. How barbaric is that? I'll never understand the mentality of people who carry out such killings.

I'm sure some will claim they were just following orders. Let's see: just following orders, gassing the defenseless to death. Does that ring a bell? It scares the hell out of me to think these people are walking the streets without a second thought for the lives they've taken. But I'm a great believer in the adage that what goes around comes around. They will get theirs.

Ironically just before I sat down to write this, I was having a discussion with some kids who were shooting at ducks beside a nearby canal. As I was walking away one of the kids shot himself in the foot. I have to admit that his agonizing scream was music to my ears.

Howard Camner

Miami

Images of death-camp Nazis come to mind: I used to think of pesky critters as nonhuman creatures who disturbed the tranquility of humans. But after reading about Viviane Farina's horrifying encounter with an outfit named Critter Control of Miami, I've had second thoughts. The senseless killing of defenseless Muscovy ducks makes me wonder: What has happened to human compassion?

Farina reminds us of the difference between living with compassionate understanding and living the Nazi way -- exterminating those who are perceived as getting in our way.

Shoma Homes, owners of the Doral property, is ultimately responsible for the slaughter. The company placed profits above protecting other life forms that mean the human race no ill will.

Clyde Cates, Jr.

South Miami

The Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Rabbi Jesus: It wasn't surprising that most of the suckers ... er ... churchgoers photographed by Jonathan Postal for the story "The Rapture" (January 13) looked constipated. What hokum. Worse than the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny combined!

Yeah, right -- the Jewish rabbi Jesus is going to call home the "saved" goyim? What a crock! The most outrageous line in the story was the following: Rapture "is a specific term referring to the belief that certain saved people will physically ascend to heaven when Jesus calls upon them to do so."

Certain saved people? Not all saved people? You mean if I "believed," was a good goy, and was "saved," I still might not get a chance to ride Jesus' personal roller coaster up to heaven?

Fuck that! Now I'll never convert!

Harvey Slavin

Hollywood

One more reason to mess with Home Depot: In her piece "Winter White" (January 6), The Bitch observed that Andy Parrish was whining that, should a Home Depot be built at McDonald Avenue and U.S. 1, we would lose our only supermarket in Coconut Grove. If Andy is whining, it's because as a life-long resident and community activist, he is concerned about a good number of our neighbors who do not own cars.

Many of these locals, who've lived here all their lives, are direct descendants of the Bahamian community that helped to found and literally built what is now Coconut Grove. They are largely elderly and must depend on others for transportation. They have always walked to the local market. Would The Bitch ask them to take a long bus ride for their groceries? (Many cannot afford cab service.) Or would it be preferable to The Bitch that they move away from the community their grandparents and great-grandparents labored to create?

I agree that Andy and many more of us are "preservationists." We are interested in helping to preserve, among other things, what is left of the Bahamian community, which is fast disappearing as a result of gentrification.

Please note that our committee, The Grove First, has the support of every local homeowner association (including the Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association) and civic group, including the One Grove Alliance, the Quality of Life Committee, the Civic Club, the Grove Merchants Association, the Grand Avenue Merchants, the Coconut Grove Collaborative, the Coconut Grove Women's Club, the Coconut Grove Village Council, and the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce -- to name just a few. They all support the effort to keep Home Depot and other big-box retailers out of our village.

Nina West, member

The Grove First

Coconut Grove

Don't give me that quagmire crap: This is my reply to "The Deadliest Day" by Eric Alan Barton (December 30): Ninety percent of Iraq is prosperous, safe, and ready for elections. Everything else is all "quagmire" bullshit. This is war, and people get hurt. If you're not ready to get shot at, don't join the military. And there are enough troops there to finish the job. All that's missing is the political will. For all his hard-ass cowboy swagger, Bush still hasn't pulled the trigger.

What's more, "Arab street opinion" is just fundamentalist crapola. Why should we give a flying jump about people who already hate us? Here's a solution: Let the Kurdish pesh merga take over. Inside of a year, Iraq will look like what the rest of that backward-ass region could become.

Jeffrey Bradley

Miami Beach

Try this one -- never ever trust lobbyists: I feel compelled to respond to Seth Gordon's letter "New Rules for a New Year" (December 30). I hope New Times doesn't take the crass advice of a second-string lobbyist when it comes to calling people "activists." Most activists I know are rational, intelligent, nice people who care enough about their activity to follow through, donate endless hours to their cause, and want the very best for their community. Unlike lobbyists, they can't be bought. In fact activists' work often gums up the lobbyists' goals.

Nancy Lee

Miami