Letters: Brookfield Zoo is a lifeline for endangered wildlife

The deaths of 54 stingrays at the Brookfield Zoo were grievous and tragic. If human error or recklessness caused it there should be severe punitive reprisals. However, Brookfield Zoo is still a renowned habitat for many endangered and threatened wildlife species that our no longer safe in their native homelands.

The zoo’s administrators and staff are deeply committed to the conservation of land and marine animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. They educate and encourage visitors and especially young people to appreciate the monumental importance of saving endangered species.

Brookfield Zoo is devastated by the deaths of majestic stingrays in stark contrast to hunters and poachers who kill them and other wondrous creatures for pleasure rooted in cruelty.

Brien Comerford, Glenview

How to stop ‘El Chapo’

A cynical person hearing the news that Mexico’s most powerful drug lord has escaped from captivity yet again (second time) by way of a tunnel is almost hilarious except for the fact that a whole country’s government is now being accused of the most egregious (if not stupid) acts of corruption that I for one can recall.

This is a man that made a billion dollars from the drug trade and is said to be responsible for untold numbers of murders, and most of the success that brought him to that fortune was his innovative use of tunnels. The United States drug enforcement agents are still finding tunnels he had built to make way for his illicit operations to enter and operate his drug cartel in the United States.

I would like to offer my humble opinion to any government who may come across “El Chapo” ever again, keep the man incarcerated on the third floor.

Bob Angone , South Loop

A distant connection

Well, we visited a lifeless round rock in the frozen far outer reaches of the solar system for a day or so and zoomed out into nowhere at a cost of about $700 million. What new science or practical value accrues remains to be seen. Some scientists may state we’ve leaned about Earth weather by seeing frozen gases on Pluto or plate tectonics by observing Pluto for a day or so, but the connection between a distant frozen rock and the Earth is extremely remote to say least.

Nice to say we’ve been there at a cost of a few million dollars, like visiting all seven continents. Some starry-eyed astronauts probably from California or Pasadena may be making plans to reside there permanently now. We’ve visited a comet that circulates out there and an asteroid in addition to the meteors that fall to Earth and are a source of better and cheaper science.

Thomas Cechner, Lockport