Treating the Public Like Idiots
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It seems as though it is all in the presentation. Los Angeles has passed legislation that regulates the spaying of cats and dogs. This was legislation that was presented by city officials like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cuddling a puppy:
“Holding kittens and puppies, Los Angeles city officials were joined by animal activists - including television personality Bob Barker - to witness the signing Tuesday of a measure requiring pet owners to spay or neuter their animals.
Under the measure that will take effect in mid-April, owners of cats and dogs will have to get their pets spayed or neutered by four months old.”
link: Spaying law gets city’s paw prints
Look at the mayor. He’s cuddling a puppy. What a good guy. It is shameless and shallow perception manipulation. It is an excellent example of treating the public like its citizens are complete idiots.
Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster
3 Comments
Agarath
February 27th, 2008
at 9:25pm
I’d love to agree with you, really I would. BUT if a mandatory spaying campaign reduces the number of abandoned animals or reduced the risk of animal harm (puppy mills etc), then we may just need to do just this very thing.
A couple of points. Low income cost free spay/neutering. A child bringing in a pet pays nothing. A person with documentation of pedigree for their animal is exempt, (possible options/exemptions/scrutinies for breeding kennels here may apply). Additional scrutinies will obviously need to be applied to “breeding” kennels or for profit pet production facilities.
$100 fee for the included services in and exemption seems to be fair I just hope the microchip application is extended to people who voluntarily have their pet spayed/neutered. The fines and penalties seem fair too.
People so often view their pets as disposable items, and are quite often very irresponsible.
Ann Miller
February 29th, 2008
at 9:38am
However, this WON”T reduce the number of unwanted dogs/cats….whenever this type of legislation has been implemented, the number of animals surrender to shelters increases or worse, then number of animals abandoned or not treated when necessary (for fear of fines) increases because a large portion of the owners cannot/will not pay these punitive fines.
Consider the population that truly makes up the unwanted animal population. Outside of those surrendered by owners who weren’t responsible when choosing their pet, most shelter animals are unowned or semi-owned animals - who wouldn’t be neutered/spayed under this law anyway!
Sometimes a bad law is worse than no law at all….this is one of those times!
Paul Gallo
March 3rd, 2008
at 3:22pm
If one were to pay and neuter all by 4 months (pre-puberty), then in the future there would no puppies or kittens.
Maybe instead of punishing people with new laws, why not enforce the onces already on the books more vigorously. In metro-Phoenix we have a sherrif who aggressively chases animal cruelty and abandonment. And although that alone might not solve the problem, it may be the best place to start.
Enforce existing laws - and then come up with a plan to deal with the residual problem.
LA is already over-regulated.