{"id":68535,"date":"2026-06-02T14:53:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=68535"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:54:08","slug":"letter-this-is-not-a-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/letter-this-is-not-a-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: THIS IS NOT A SOLUTION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Need community service hours for Diversion Court in Polk County?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apparently, adopting an animal from the Polk County Animal Shelter can now count toward fulfilling those hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Community service is supposed to be about giving back through service and accountability. Is simply adopting a pet really the same thing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Animals deserve committed, loving homes\u2014not to be used as a shortcut for court-ordered requirements. What happens if someone adopts a pet just to clear their hours and later decides they no longer want the responsibility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Helping shelter animals is important, but this policy raises serious questions about whether it benefits the animals, the community, or the purpose of community service itself..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Samantha Thomas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Need community service hours for Diversion Court in Polk County? Apparently, adopting an animal from the Polk County Animal Shelter can now count toward fulfilling those hours. Community service is&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyMVwvMDRcL0xFVFRFUi1UTy1USEUtRURJVE9SLmpwZz9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzU3NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkxldHRlcjogVEhJUyBJUyBOT1QgQSBTT0xVVElPTiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.vJvlEKg1QVxlZzxiXg2OGPQEc9YA7qLL1rhOXtf3D4AMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyMVwvMDRcL0xFVFRFUi1UTy1USEUtRURJVE9SLmpwZz9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzU3NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkxldHRlcjogVEhJUyBJUyBOT1QgQSBTT0xVVElPTiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.vJvlEKg1QVxlZzxiXg2OGPQEc9YA7qLL1rhOXtf3D4AMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[14749],"class_list":["post-68535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-letter-this-is-not-a-solution"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68536,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68535\/revisions\/68536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}