BackboneAmerica

You thought the nanny state had run out of ridiculous ideas? Colorado legislators are now regulating the sex lives of dogs.

Never mind dealing with a projected $600 million budget shortfall. 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 its snout – er, nose – into this whole business in the first place. And speaking of more pet-related legislative silliness…

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 (ref. “Bill to require photo ID when voting fails”, RMN 23 January 2009, p. 18) 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…