San Francisco Considers Ban On All Pet Sales 733
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that the Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco. It would ban the sale of any animal that walks, flies, swims, crawls or slithers — unless you plan to eat it. Representatives of the $45-billion to $50-billion-a-year pet industry call the San Francisco proposal 'by far the most radical ban we've seen' nationwide and argue that it would force small operators to close. Animal activists say it will save small but important lives, along with taxpayer money, and end needless suffering. 'From Descartes on up, in the Western mindset, fish and other nonhuman animals don't have feelings, they don't have emotions, we can do whatever we want to them,' says Philip Gerrie, coauthor of the proposal. 'If we considered them living beings, we would deal with them differently.'"
It's More Cruel to *Prevent* Pet Ownership (Score:5, Interesting)
It was a valid evolutionary step for many animals to prefer and enjoy the company of people; banning pet "ownership" merely leaves dozens of cat and dog sub-species without their proper habitat and social environment.
Re:Save important pet lives...? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was too lazy to read TFA, but there is a big distinction between selling pets and adopting pets. In one you just pay a small amount for the paperwork, covering vaccines and the like.
Even if pet selling was illegal, adopting should still be an option. There are quite a few pet shops that only sell supplies and refuse to support the Puppy Mill market, instead these host regular foster home gatherings where you can adopt pets and give them a proper home.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess it would end up like hermit crabs. Illegal to buy one, but you get one for free if you buy a cage. If there is a market people and the product is cheap, people will make it work.
Personally, I quit reading after this:
Snake food was almost exempt from the proposal. After all, pythons have to eat, and they like their lunch alive. But at a heated meeting, Commissioner Pam Hemphill questioned how it could be humane to sell live animals to be fed to other live animals.
At that point I can't help but think you've crossed a line somewhere and gone into some kind of pseudo-religion where it isn't nature on the throne but human ego. Animals gotta eat and they don't know a damned thing about this humane thing you keep talking about.
Re:Save important pet lives...? (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, people very commonly abuse fish by keeping them in extremely bad conditions. The problem is that fish don't communicate pain in a way that is obvious to humans. I've heard people advise putting tropical fish in the freezer to euthanise them! Just because the fish can't scream doesn't mean it's not in pain. The simplest way to euthanize a fish is to quickly cut its head off, but the most humane method is probably an overdose of anesthetic.
Keeping a goldfish in a goldfish bowl is usually death by slow torture. That two inch long goldfish you're keeping in a one gallon bowl is a pond fish which as an adult reaches six times the length and two hundred times the body weight. People don't know this because they keep killing their pets of as tiny juveniles, by slow and painful means I might add. In the long term you probably need *at least* 30 gallons per fish if you intend to keep your goldfish in an aquarium.
Then there's the people who buy single fish of schooling species like neon tetras. You should research the fish you are buying, know the minimum school size, and aim *above* that. A species whose minimum school size is eight will be stressed if you only have four, and *much* healthier (and more interesting to watch) if you keep sixteen.
Fishkeeping is a thinking person's hobby. While it's not rocket science, it takes a fair amount of practical scientific knowledge. You have to research the fish you're buying. I've seen 2" "sharks" in pet stores that are fry of giant catfish species that grow to eight or even ten feet in length.