We love telling the story of Vicksburg, and we need your help to do it.

Do you like to write? Are you involved with civic, church or neighborhood groups here? Do you have a particular area of expertise, like art or history or youth sports?

The Vicksburg Post is looking for community correspondents who will submit stories and photos about people and happenings in our community. Such continues our mission of focusing our efforts on our community.

In my 30-plus years of newspapering, I have always had community correspondents who wrote about the activities of groups they were involved in, or their areas of interest and relevance to the community.

If you are so inclined, we would like to explore you writing such stories or columns for us. You won’t get rich. Far from it. However, you will have the satisfaction of communicating the goings on of things you are involved with to readers of our newspaper and website, which is the dominant communication vehicle in Vicksburg and Warren County. Love us or hate us, that’s simply a fact.

If you’re involved in a community group and you’ve written before and think you have the time or inclination to give it a try, shoot me an email at jan.griffey@vicksburgpost.com.

Good things are happening here, thanks to Passionate for Rescues

Good things are happening in Vicksburg and Warren County to make better the lives of stray, unwanted and abused animals here.

We have a well-operated and caring Vicksburg Warren County Humane Society. We publish pets of the week each week for the Humane Society, thanks to photos and information submitted by its staff.

It makes me so happy to see the postings on Facebook of volunteers who are part of Passionate for Rescues showing their interaction with the unfortunate dogs and cats who find themselves at the Vicksburg city pound.

This group is a small one, just a handful of people who really care about animals. They are volunteering each day the pound is open to walk the dogs and interact with the cats there. This group is getting the word out about animals at the pound, and that has led to a number of adoptions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Last year, when we heard about poor conditions at the pound, we wrote some stories, and this group stepped up and took action. Darlene Hughes and Judy McKnight and several other volunteers are working with PAWS Rescue when they can to find foster homes for the most vulnerable pets that come in to the shelter. They’ve even fostered dogs and cats in their own home when they thought they wouldn’t survive at the pound.

The Vicksburg city pound is a kill shelter, and it has to be that. While that sounds cruel, the pound simply does not have the resources to care for the number of stray, unwanted and abused animals here, which far outweighs the number of people who are willing to provide safe and loving homes. That’s a very sad thing, and it’s not likely to change anytime soon.

Changing the plight of unwanted and abused animals takes laws that require spaying and neutering of pets and regulation like permits for pets. That’s a tactic that has worked well for other states, greatly diminishing their number of unwanted animals.

Unfortunately, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Mississippi is one of only three states in the country that doesn’t consider animal abuse a felony upon first offense. Such a bill has been introduced each of the last couple of years in the state legislature, but it’s been opposed strongly by the Mississippi Farm Bureau, even though the people of Mississippi strongly support it.

If we can’t pass an animal cruelty bill that 47 other states have passed, it’s unlikely we’re going to make much headway in helping innocent, unwanted animals.

Guess our legislators think the Farm Bureau elected them, rather than we, the people.

Like they say, just follow the money.

Jan Griffey is editor of The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at jan.griffey@vicksburgpost.com. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.