Some headlines you just gotta’ click. For instance: S.F. considers banning sale of pets except fish… See? I told you.
Sell a guinea pig, go to jail.
That’s the law under consideration by San Francisco’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare. If the commission approves the ordinance at its meeting tonight, San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country’s first ban on the sale of all pets except fish.
That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.
The complaint is that there are a ton of hamsters ending up in shelters, so the commission’s solution is to stop selling hamsters within the city limits. Where to start? Oh, where oh where to start? How about with the industry?
But those shelter hamsters almost certainly did not originate at a pet store, said Michael Maddox, general counsel for the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.
Studies by UC Davis and the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy have shown that only a small fraction of shelter animals were purchased at pet stores, he said. People who buy animals at pet stores are just as committed, emotionally and financially, to caring for their pets as people who procure pets elsewhere, he said.
“This is an anti-pet proposal from people who oppose the keeping of pets,” he said. “If their goal is to ban the ownership of pets entirely, then this is a good first step.”
Even as an industry flack, I’m not into generally believing industry flacks who just spout off numbers. But I’d generally agree. It’s more likely that they’ll come from people who either “accidentally” bred animals they have, or from people who got them in the paper or through a friend. Go ask anyone at the Humane Society near you.
But beyond that: San Francisco does not exist in a vacuum. If you’d like a hamster, now you just have to drive to Daly City, or Marin, or grab one in San Jose when you’re down there to get warm in the summer. Banning pet sales is merely a way to prevent pet stores( in the city that’s supposed to look out for them) from making money.
“We’re still in the information-gathering phase,” said Commissioner Philip Gerrie, who is sponsoring the proposal. “We’re trying to get at the problem of people buying these creatures with the best intentions, but then the reality turns out quite different.”
Dude, you’re voting TONIGHT! You’re really concerned about getting information. Look, San Francisco can do whatever it wants, and it likely will as long as “whatever it wants” includes something completely nutty. Naked races, fetish parades, massive bike-rider riots… it’s all part of the street theater that is San Francisco.
Thank you, God, that I don’t have to live there.
Cross-posted at the Finding Ponies Blog. If we actually found the pony we promise we wouldn’t send it to a shelter. My dog needs a playmate.
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So, where are the fetish parades going to get their hamsters from? this is an anti-gay ordinance, isn’t it?
I’d expect a homophobic comment on this site and I R A provide it.
Anyway, the issue here is too many pets not being cared for. I sort have to agree with the idea the council is floating. Too many people get pets but don’t want to care for them. This happens everywhere. This particular ban won’t hurt people or pets. It might hurt some businesses, true. But to what extent I am not sure.
Also San Francisco [and the area] is one of the most beautiful in America. It’s a good city. You can enjoy it plenty if you are not left of center. Trust me.
I agree, Matt. SF is a lovely town, very picturesque, and not everyone is a freak. But there’s enough that it’s a very wierd town. I never said I wouldn’t visit. Just not stay.
But I disagree on the pets thing. I don’t think it’s the role of a city council to dictate how people take care of pets, though the local law can enforce animal cruelty statutes. Otherwise, do we really want government dictating what we can own? That’s counter to what makes us a free nation.
hey – I saw a “weird food” episodes where they ate guinea pigs in South America. That might be an option on what to do with them all
and someone in SF surely must have a non vegetarian boa constrictor pet at home….they get terribly hungry I’m told
Hi Jim
I agree the local government should not dictate what animals we can OWN but I thought they were floating the idea of what pets people can BUY – but only within the city limits. In other words, this would be ban on sales of animals to curb the number that are bought and eventually abandoned. And, yes, it would affect some local business.
That said, if you go read the comments on the SFGate site you will see most people [liberals, yes] disagree with the ban. I think the supervisors are considering it to make it an issue hoping someone will find a reasonable solution. It’s the way government works; throw out a crazy idea and you get some compromises.
I’ll admit that I got interrupted by real life in the middle of my last comment, so it wasn’t fully formed. Couple more thoughts.
Throw out a crazy idea and get compromises: like healthcare? I couldn’t resist.
I don’t think the local government has any call in restricting what its businesses can sell provided the businesses are within the law. So if they don’t like lizard crud in their treatment plants, they can ban the sale of lizards?
Also, I find it highly amusing that the city with one of the highest rates of homelessness, that gives out needles to drug abusers, and that routinely looks the other way when there’s sex in public parks decides that hamsters are the real problem in the city.
“I agree the local government should not dictate what animals we can OWN but I thought they were floating the idea of what pets people can BUY – but only within the city limits. In other words, this would be ban on sales of animals to curb the number that are bought and eventually abandoned. ”
That’s where it starts. If they’re allowed to ban buying animals from pet stores, they’ll try to ban buying them anywhere, and eventually outright ban ownership.
The government has to be kept on a short leash attached to a choke chain. A bark collar might be nice too, now I think about it…