| The Future of Dogs | |
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The Importance of Home Breeding |
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Grooming Aprons and Towels embroidered with 'Fight Anti-Pet Legislation. It Affects Us All" |
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HOW
ANIMAL RIGHTS LAWS WORK
Part III: A Final Observation One final observation. The true effect of an animal rights law may be very well hidden. Long or complicated bills need several readings and at least one should be from the bottom up, since 'killer' provisions often appear near the end. Focus on the real world effects; they're often not as they seem. An example of 'well hidden.' A 2004 North Carolina proposal promoted to ‘end the tragedy of euthanasia' would have taxed pet foods in order to fund (among other things) low cost spay/neuter programs. Sounds okay so far, doesn't it? But the funds were to be distributed to counties equally and to jurisdictions within counties according to population. The result would have been that the urban counties already having very high S/N percentages would have gotten most of the modest amount of money from the tax and incorporated areas within the remaining counties most of the rest, leaving pennies on the dollar for the less populous unincorporated rural areas that actually had the problem. The same proposal contained a requirement that all shelters sterilize all animals prior to adoption. The effect on well-off counties would have been small, since most of them already were doing so. However in the poorer counties, 100% pre-adoption sterilization (rather than the weaker measure of requiring it by contract) would have jacked up the price of an adoption from $50-75 to perhaps $250 thus essentially ending unsubsidized adoptions. When you looked at the numbers, it was clear that there wouldn't be enough money for more than a fractional subsidy. The true effect of the proposal would have been to greatly increase euthanasia rates in the rural areas where the problem existed. Opposition grew, the measure never was introduced as a bill. A second example of ‘well hidden.' The Albuquerque New Mexico ‘HEART' ordinance contains a list of the usual sorts of serious mistreatment that will be considered animal cruelty. Much farther down the text of the law there's a short paragraph that lists by number only, several earlier paragraphs of minor violations that will also be charged as cruelty – leash law violations, having bees in an area accessible to your dog, and so on. In yet another section you discover that not only is any cruelty violation a bar to getting a permit (to conduct any animal business or to keep or breed an intact animal) but the presence of any person in your household who has had such a conviction is also a bar. Maybe they won't find out? Well, you're required to state when applying that no such bar exists. In Albuquerque, if your mom gets fined because her dog gets loose and she later moves in with you, your pet breeding days are over. HEART is in effect now and there will be a strong effort to pass it at the state level within the next year. Next: Timbreblue Whippets and the Future of Dogs in Virginia |