Sex Lives of Dogs, Carding Cats (your legislature at work)
by Captain Arapahoe | 10:54 am, January 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Sex Lives of Dogs
Just when you thought the reach of the nanny state had run out of ridiculous ideas, and maybe had better things to do (like dealing with a projected $600 million budget shortfall), it turns out that our state legislature is hard at work – regulating the sex lives of dogs.
A law that just went into effect this month addresses the pressing concern of our authorities over the sex lives of dogs. That’s right, our legislature is now mandating when (and rather) dogs are spayed or neutered.
In the Speakout section of the RMN (Wednesday January 14th) Georgia Cameron spelled out from an animal rescue professional’s perspective just why this latest law is bad policy, pointing out the negative effects on animal’s health, increased administrative burden on rescuers and prospective adopters, and increased costs to nonprofits, government oversight, and therefore taxpayers at large. It’s a thoughtful, well-reasoned, and articulately argued critique of one particular legislative overreach.
I’m just here to point out how silly it is that the legislature even poked it’s snout – er, nose – into this whole business in the first place.
Speaking of more pet-related legislative silliness…
Carding Cats
From the same people who find it a horrendously onerous burden for presumably sentient (at least they walk upright) human beings to present identification in order to exercise the most sacred duty of citizenship: voting (RMN’s “Bill to Require Photo ID When Voting Fails“) comes a new demand that cats carry some form of ID (tags, implanted chips) on their –er, persons – at all times. That’s right, like the AmEx commercials of old, kitties – don’t leave home without it. The mind’s eye conjures up legions of itinerant identity-checking inspectors wandering the streets in a scene from the old Soviet Union, marching up to cats and barking out “Propusk!” (papers). “Mrrrowr?”
No ID? Well, it’s off to the kitty gulag with you, my fine furry feline friend…
