S.F. considers banning sale of pets except fish

[wolfy-hound]

So we shouldn't get lathered up if your town decides to ban ball pythons, because they already had bans on other stuff?

I've seen very very few times that bans on certain animals have been overturned anywhere. But like I said.. you go fight those. I'll concentrate on helping prevent all of our rights being infringed. When you get that effort started on overturning bans, let me know so I can sign your petition.

[j_h_smith]

Theresa - this community has shown little effectiveness when fighting one battle at a time - let alone two.

Why? Well, you and I know why...............don't we? A lot of talk and very little walk...................

That 30 year old ban isn't so hard to overturn if it's approached in a smart manner and people are willing to fight. Muni codes are constantly being amended.

Unfortunately at this point it's Monty Pythonesque to get all lathered up about a sales ban when most of the species on the proposed banned for sale list are already illegal to own in SF anyway.

Since when are dogs and cats illegal to own in SF?

Jim Smith

[Skiploder]

So we shouldn't get lathered up if your town decides to ban ball pythons, because they already had bans on other stuff?

I've seen very very few times that bans on certain animals have been overturned anywhere. But like I said.. you go fight those. I'll concentrate on helping prevent all of our rights being infringed. When you get that effort started on overturning bans, let me know so I can sign your petition.

Your missing the point. Check the SF municipal code and the proposed law.

They are not banning anything. Only sales though pet stores.

Then look and see how many of those animals marked for the sales restriction are already banned via the 1978 municipal code.

Amend the code instead of riding full tilt at the windmill. We're not talking new ownership bans.

[Skiploder]

Since when are dogs and cats illegal to own in SF?

Jim Smith

They are not. The proposed law is about sales, not ownership. Specifically it's about sales through PET STORES.

In other words if Lolo decides to breed her corn snakes and the law passes, she can still do so, sell them in the City and not be labelled a scofflaw.

In the meantime even if you defeat this insidious attempt at your liberty, if you own a ball python or a hognose snake and live in the City you are still breaking the law. Get it? Your liberty has already been raped, all you've done is prevented a kiss on the cheek goodnight.

See where we are going with this?

If you'd actually read the law, it would also still be legal to adopt all of these wonderful animals from shelters and rescue groups. Mull that over for a bit...........or go the classifieds or another town, or a breeder who is not a pet store. The law isn't targeting at banning ownership - only pet store sales. It's misguided but stop acting like this is targeted at ownership. The sponsors of the law still want people adopting out these animals.

Is the proposed law good? Of course not. Will it solve the problem - well prove to me that shelter animals all come from pet stores. It's badly thought out and as such, will affect pet store sales only.

Let's do this - go look up the SF Municipal code and then check of how many of those proposed banned pet store animals are already illegal to keep in SF.

Then maybe we can have a discussion not based on phantom bans and inaccurate assumptions.

So in the meantime, I'm glad the law is being proposed because it's focusing attention on animal laws in SF and will be easily beaten down (maybe - you never know the power and influence (or lack of) of the Reptile Lobby). Luckily, the bird and the hamster lobby have already proven their mettle in squashing last year's state wide outdoor sales ban on pets. Organizing the scary Reptile Nation to defeat this poorly thought out law is a baby step and should not be considered the final objective.

No the final objective should be to spend 5 minutes, look up the municipal code and list all of the pets already prohibited by law. Approach the fan groups for those animals and, here's a novel idea, JOIN FORCES and go after the SF BOS. Better yet - get the swap meet lobby to help us out.

Then ball python owners will be able to own all the ball pythons they want without a cloud of fear hanging over their heads.

They will also be able to come on this forum and flap their gums about the sorry state of the ball pythons being kept at the SF Petco.