It Should Stay Legal to Get Rid of Pets Once You've Had Them

            Whenever a dog whose family we know has puppies, we always go over to their house and visit them. Imagine if you couldn't buy any of the puppies. If you have a pet and you can't provide for them, it should stay legal to give them away. Also, if your pet is extremely bad, you should be able to give it to a person who can train it. If your dog has puppies then you wouldn't want 15 puppies running around your house all the time. I think it should stay legal to get rid of pets once you've had them.
            My first reason is that if you can't afford your pet's needs, you should be able to get rid of them. If you don't, they might starve. They might also be depressed. They might even die early! I think it is better to give them away.
            My second reason is that your pet might not be well-behaved. If you don't give them away, they might chew on expensive items that you can't afford to replace. They might also be harmful to yourself or others. When you have an important meeting or something, no one will want to take care of the pet. It should stay legal to give your pet to someone who is better fitted to train them.
            My third and final reason is if your dog has puppies then you would want to give them away or possibly sell them.You wouldn't want your house overrun with puppies, no matter how cute they are. Also, if you aren't allowed to give away your puppies, no one else would have any. No one can afford that many puppies or pets, anyway. No one will have pets, so you should be able to let them go.
            It should stay legal to get rid of or sell pets. If you don't have what they need then you can't take care of them. They also might not be well-behaved. Finally, your dog might have puppies! So if you ever have a bad or expensive pet, be glad that you can still give them away. 

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Unicorn Chickens

Mary Mallon

Mary Mallon

Mary Mallon was born September 3rd, 1869 in Cookstown, Country Tyrone in Northern Ireland. She emigrated to the United States in 1884 ate the age of 15, where she lived with her aunt and uncle and cooked for rich families. She moved to Manhattan and cooked for families there. George Soper, from the Department of Health and Sanitation, was investigating typhoid outbreaks across the city, and found Mary Mallon had cooked in each of the households. He then tried to apprehend her various ways, the first at a house she was working at where she threatened him with a knife. One time he followed her to her house and she threw a kitchen fork at him as he tried to get away. He finally quarantined her with the help of the police and Dr. Sara Josephine Baker. Upon further investigation, she said that she did not wash her hands when she was cooking and did not see the need to do so. The doctors found that her gallbladder was teeming with salmonella, but when they asked her if they could remove it, she refused saying that she didn't have typhoid and had never had a sick day in her life. She never could understand or admit that she had typhoid and so they had to quarantine her. In 1910, they let her go with the promise that she wouldn't work as a cook anymore. So she got a job as a laundress - which pays less than a cook - but soon changed her name to Mary Brown and got a job as a cook again. For the next five years she worked in a number of kitchens, all of which got typhoid. Although Soper was looking for her, she changed jobs frequently and was unable to find her. In 1915, Mary started another major outbreak in the Sloane Hospital for Women. 25 people were infected and two died. Again, she got away, but was arrested when bringing food to a friend on Long Island. Agter arresting her, they quarantined her again on North Brother Island where she lived the rest of her life with her dog. Six years before her death, she was paralyzed by a stroke. On November 11th, 1938, she died of pneumonia at the age of 68.

Book Review I: Deadly by Julie Chibbaro

A newspaper article from 1907 about Mary Mallon

Deadly, by Julie Chibbaro, is about a 16-year-old girl named Prudence Galewski who goes to Mrs. Browning's School for girls, which seems to be a finishing school. She lives with her mother - who she calls Marm - after her father has gone to war and her brother, Benny, has been killed by infection. She gets a job as a scientific assistant for Mr. Soper who works for the Department of Health and Sanitation. The hours are so that she has to quit school. In her new job they are researching the cause of Typhoid Fever and find a lead having to do with peach ice cream and find and confront Mary Mallon - "Typhoid Mary" -  who is healthy but spreads the fever through her cooking. They try to capture her using all kinds of methods including following, threatening and even bribing, but fail to capture her until they get the police involved.Even after they capture her, she still refuses to believe them. Meanwhile, Prudence is having troubles with Mr. Soper because she loves him and after she kissed him he isn't being as friendly anymore. There is also a young science fellow named Jonathan who loves her but she is afraid and angry with him because he tried to kiss her and he was acting aggressively. There is a female doctor, Dr. Baker, who helps Prudence and Mr. Soper with Mary and who thinks that Prudence should go to medical school. While all that is happening, the press is getting worked up about Mary's involuntary quarantine. The book's climax is the court hearing where they decide whether or not Mary should stay in quarantine. Although there are lots of  protesters, the judge says the Department of Health and Sanitation is free to leave Mary quarantine on North Brother Island.

I think that the theme is to be confident and to do something meaningful, even if you are a girl. One of my examples is when Prudence is meeting with Dr. Baker and she says that she didn't know there were schools for girls like her. "There certainly are schools for girls like you, Prudence! I wish more girls knew that! The only way for us to progress is by getting out of the factories and going to school" (168). Another example is where Prudence tells Dr. Baker that her mother didn't want her to go to free school. "She thought Mrs. Browning's would give me a better chance in life than she had" (198). My third example is when Prudence tells her mom that she wants to go to medical school. "You make me so proud" (220). This means so much to Prudence that she starts crying. I think that this is a good theme because at that time not many women were in the professions. I think that girls should get up and show how good they are. Doing something meaningful with your life is an important theme in this book.

I would definitely recommend this book to a friend or other 7th graders because it has a strong plot and characters who are very relatable. It is a good book if you like science, history, or even romance novels! This author, Julie Chibbaro, has written one other book, Redemption, and it is also historical fiction.Her writing is very good and it makes you care about stereotypes and prejudice. I love this book, and I would recommend it to others.

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