Editor, The Herald:

Your January 20th edition printed a letter bemoaning the supposed fact that Northern Virginia is about to be overwhelmed by rats captured in the District of Columbia, ferried across the Potomac, and dumped in the Old Dominion.

The writer was evidently spurred to communicate this fear by a press conference held by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in which he expressed fear that a law passed by the District legislature in March, 2010, would trigger a rat invasion. Evidently neither Mr. Cuccinelli nor the writer bothered to read the text of the law.

The new law was designed to protect wildlife within the district, so that when animals become a hazard or a nuisance, they will be treated humanely. Capture is to be preferred to killing and relocation of populations is also strongly recommended. What Mr. Cuccinelli and the letter-writer evidently missed is that in each and every case, lethal means may be taken if there is no alternative, and that “commensal rodents,” meaning rats and mice, are specifically exempted from the humane provisions. So this is another tempest in a teapot, ginned up by Mr. Cuccinelli to rally the faithful for his gubernatorial bid. Those dad-gum liberals! Look what they've done now!

More seriously, the writer provided insight into these motivations by somehow linking “laws protecting disease-causing vermin” with “aborting human babies,” and, of course, had to drag in the name of the dreaded Wicked Witch of the West, Nancy Pelosi.

The writer ended his letter with a plea for prayer for protection from “human irrationality and foolishness.” I think the best way to accomplish that would be to make sure Mr. Cuccinelli does not get into the governor's mansion.

Bill Shear

Farmville