San Francisco should ban the sale of pets. And so should everyone else.
James, I'm guessing you haven't spent much time in animal shelters. Every year in America, five million cats and dogs are gassed to death or lethally injected with sodium pentobarbital in these shelters. The word 'euthanasia' is a grotesque euphemism. There is no mercy in these deaths. Most of the animals are healthy, rambunctious, and young. They die terrified, and they die pointlessly: very few are vicious; most are capable of forming deep affectionate bonds with humans. This is what happens -- what really happens -- every day in these shelters. The links are graphic and upsetting. They're also reality.
Concern for the welfare and dignity of animals is not confined to nihilist Leftists such as Peter Singer or local totalitarians who seek to regulate pets out of existence. Have you read Matthew Scully's immensely moving, immensely disturbing book Dominion? A completely conservative case can be made, should be made, for treating animals with mercy and respect. Animals are not ordinary commodities, they are living creatures, and they feel pain and fear. No one need suggest that a kitten's life is morally equivalent to a human's to observe that something is terribly wrong when we casually dispose of one much as we would the butane in a Bic lighter: that is the mark of a callow society, a cruel society. It does not speak well for us that we kill millions of sentient, sensitive animals every year through grotesque, painful methods such as gassing and heart-sticking. Pet stores are one of the main reasons we do this.
Now many people may wonder and ask, just why are are there so many unwanted pets in the first place to create this tragic situation and where so many unwanted pets are killed in shelters, whether by gas chamber, heartstick or even by injection to begin with? First, there are the puppy and kitten mills that are still prevalent and where animals are bred and bred and bred, over and over again. Thankfully more and more of these mill type breeders are being shut down. These breeders crank out animals like an assembly line and usually wind up in pet stores for sale. And don't kid yourself, it's not just a little local pet shop that sells puppies or kittens from these mills, but also some of those fancy high-priced pet stores in Beverly Hills, California where the likes of celebrities will get their dogs from, and they aren't even aware that those animals are coming from mills.
Yes, snakes eat rodents. Yes, tigers eat gazelles, and yes, nature is savage and cruel. That doesn't mean we need to add to the misery. They have no choice but to be beasts: We do. If air conditioning is the mark of an advanced civilization that has elevated itself above the State of Nature, even more so is the mercy we display toward animals.
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May '10
Re: San Francisco should ban the sale of pets. And so should everyone else.
Claire Berlinski
Yes! I was going to bring this up. · Jul 10 at 10:24pm
Well, no surprise there. Liberals always want one rule for themselves and one rule for the masses. Claire, you at least want everyone living by the same rules.
May '10
Re: San Francisco should ban the sale of pets. And so should everyone else.
Claire Berlinski: I now resort to the rhetorical device of "Reductio ad Adorable." · Jul 9 at 10:26pm
Agree ... but why is there a cat in the picture?
May '10
Re: San Francisco should ban the sale of pets. And so should everyone else.
I would not ban the sale of pets in pet stores, but I do think treatment of animals should be regulated and enforced with vigor. Use the fines generated to support the shelters! I have no problem with vaccination, spay/neuter, and licensing regulations, and with draconian punishment for the scofflaws.
In my neck of the woods, the pet store chains have crowded out the independents for dogs and cats, and they do a few "adoption days" a month in conjunction with local shelters. This is an issue where "corporatization" actually helps .. no one knows where a local pet store gets its dogs, but imagine the stink if Petco or Petsmart were found to be selling abused critters.
I hate the idea of killing "extra" animals, but I'm not sure if there is a workable alternative in urban areas. I can see "catch, vaccinate, neuter, release" working to reduce stray populations over time, but I don't see it being particularly safe for people, particularly children. I also see it being a rich and fertile field for the ambulance chasers of the world.