Goldfish Ban in San Francisco?
Published June 21, 2011
The Animal Control and Welfare Commission of San Francisco has taken steps to ban the sale of goldfish, according to SFGate. The idea is that citizens will be discouraged from buying any pets on impulse. The ban includes puppies, kittens and other small pets as well.
Fish are bred in mass amounts in terrible conditions or they are taken from the wild, which has a negative effect on their ecosystem, according to the article
Although the ban seems to stem from good intentions, it has a fair amount of opponents, namely, pet shop owners.
What do you think? Is the city taking too much control, or not enough?
To read more about the bill, read here.
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Comments (3)
I see a great new government bureaucracy: a "Potential Goldfish Owner Evaluation Board". Board members will interview potential goldfish oweners only after the potential owner has paid a non-refundable fee of $500, has been cleared by a government-employed psychologist (who specializes in the psyches of successful pet owners), and and has modified his/her abode such that required safeguards are in place in to prevent, or to summon help, in the case of the goldfish experiencing any type of negative physical or psychological event.
Upon purchase of a goldfish, the caretaker ("owner" has such a negative connotation) of the goldfish will be required to hire, feed, and board (for one week) a life coach so as to ensure that the goldfish and its caretaker makea successful transition to their fresh relationship.
As a landlord who has been forced too many times to deal with abandoned pets by my tenants, I must say that it is about time that this issue of impulse buying gets dealt with. Beyond that, there is the other issue of the training that should be required of any pet owner. I think fish in particular are victims of owner ignorance due to the special chemical conditions that they need to have in the water. So many die needlessly!
Too much control is putting it lightly and if San Franciscans don't stand up and do something about it they deserve the next ban and the next ad nauseum. "The idea is that citizens will be discouraged from buying any pets on impulse" and shows you how stupid politicians can be to ban something to discourage impulse buying, which to put it in commonsense terms, kills buying totally.
And after reading the link for more info, it said they spent a year studying the issue! How much hard earned tax money did it cost? How many poor, homeless, mentally ill could have been helped with that money? How many animals could that money have aided? If only one it still would have been better than this drek. San Francisco, California's Big Brother poster child.