Thursday, June 17, 2004
Leashes And Leaves
There are some laws still on the books in some cities from many years ago, (hundreds even), that we laugh at because they are just plain ridiculous. But it appears that some people insist on continuing the creation of stupid laws.
We start off in New York where a new ordinance states that not only is clear cutting no longer allowed in the area, property owners are being ordered "to preserve existing foliage, including trees, bushes, weeds and even dead leaves."
Weeds and dead leaves. You can go to any fire safety site and the first thing they tell you to do is to remove dead leaves and trim and cut back trees and foliage around the house as a safety measure. The story doesn’t give a lot of detail but I’m wondering what they mean by “preserve”. A number of years ago in the state of Oregon, some environmentalists had themselves a hissy fit over the chopping down of trees and they got their way. So instead of having a nice fire line established, when lightning struck in the forest, ALL the trees burned down. Bravo. Score one for the environmentalists. If they could have listened to reason instead of using emotion to base their opinions for the poor little innocent trees that they love to hug so much, the damage to the forest wouldn’t have been as big.
Another retarded law that is being “pondered” is a cat leash law. Yep. CAT leash law.
LINCOLN, Neb: If city officials get their way, cats roaming the streets here freely may be a thing of the past. Attorneys are drafting a cat-at-large law aimed at eliminating strays by requiring that cats be on leashes when not on their owners’ property. Officials have cited both health and annoyance concerns.
Now I understand that some people become irritated when the neighbor cat comes over and uses their prized flower garden as a giant litter box but putting cats on a leash? Give me a break. So every cat now has to be an indoor cat? If you actually think that a fenced in yard is going to keep a cat in, you don’t know cats very well. If you know the owner of the cat, go talk to the owner and have them come pick up Snowball’s mess or replace any plants the cat destroyed. If it’s a feral cat, it should be picked up by Animal Control anyway.
As far as rabies; out of 290 million people in this country, only 270 cases of rabies from domestic cats were reported. It does not say how many of these were acquired by Animal Control officers or perhaps police or firemen. Additionally, only 3 people died in the year 2002 of rabies and two of them were because the people had handled bats, not cats.
This is one of the dumbest laws I’ve ever seen and I sincerely hope it does not actually pass. What’s most surprising is that it has been considered since 1985; it just never actually makes it into law for various reasons.
What the hell is this world coming to when you can’t rake up dead leaves and you are required to leash your cats?
[link for cat leash law thanks to Tarazet]
