Wow. Talk about due process. Talk about totalitarianism. This is NOT Liberalism, ‘cause I am a Liberal, and I know. How did this law sneak by us?
I had a dog a while back, gone now to the Rainbow Bridge, as they say, and he was my friend. A City Animal Control officer stopped me one day and told me that I had to buy a $100.00 permit to keep him in an unaltered state. WHAT?!?! Since when? Since our County Commissioners sold out to the HSUS, who believes that no human should have a companion animal, and that domestic animals should be extinct. Read http://www.pelaqitapersians.com/PETA_article.html and see. See also http://bluedogstate.blogspot.com/2006/10/testicle-wars-battle-for-control-of.html
I am a Democrat, and a Liberal Progressive, and find this disturbing at least, and alarming if I think about it. Why and when, and especially how does my dog or cat come under the control of the county when the dog or cat lives with me? More to the point, how can a bunch of commissioners tell me what I am supposed to do with a creature that is considered under law to be my property. When will they come into my home and tell me that I have to be sterilized? Will they tell me I can’t smoke, drink, or will they tell me in what manner I am to conduct myself?
My pets are well cared for, loved, protected, and are not, repeat not allowed to run at large (I used to be an Animal Control Officer), and I am responsible for them. Since they are pure bred, I feel that as I am their human “owner”, I should be able to allow them to breed without interference from any abusive government.
Althoug i sympathize with your desire to not “fix” your pet, you sure come across a bit delusional. I can think of multiple reasons off the top of my head why the county may have valid reasons to tell people they have to spay their pets. Unless, of course, you dont mind me shooting your dog when it wanders onto my property.
When will they come into my home and tell me that I have to be sterilized? Will they tell me I can’t smoke, drink, or will they tell me in what manner I am to conduct myself?
That’s certainly quite a few steps between county regulations for spaying your pet and forced sterilization of humans. And, yes, laws do exist that dictate what manner you may conduct yourself. It’s called living in a society. Dont like it? Move to a cave somewhere and dont use any public services.
And if you think the constitution protects your dogs testicles, you may want to give it a re-read.
I do think that there should be a better way than this law.
Still, no one is forcing you to neuter your companion animal - they are just making you buy a license to keep him unaltered. If you decide to breed your pure-bred animal, the $$ you make from selling the pure-bred pups will almost certainly cover the $100 license.
It’s the law in most (if not all) States that all companion animals must have their rabies vaccinations (which cost money). It’s a “greater good” thing, I guess. If people just decided they didn’t want to vaccinate their pets - we might have a lot more problems with rabies outbreaks than we do.
While you might be the most responsible of dog owners, not everyone is….and the State is already struggling with thousands of unwanted litters (most of whom are euthanized) every year.
“And if you think the constitution protects your dogs testicles, you may want to give it a re-read. “
I have indeed read it, and it protects my property from “unlawful search and seizure”. I mean, read the links I posted which refer to the Constitution.
You will notice that Buncombe County is one of the few counties in the State or the US with such a strange law.
There are people with goats, pigs, chickens, cattle, various other animals they are NOT required to spay or neuter. Excuse me?
Yes, I know that shelters are filled. Shows that laws of this sort just don’t work. I dare say there are cats out there that are pregnant at this moment in Buncombe County.
I also do not like the county assessing me a price for leaving my babies entire. It just seems wrong somehow.
I too am against puppy mills. This law couldn’t stop them anyway; puppy mills are big business. It can only stop small scale home and hobby breeders.
That’s kind of what most puppy mills are, though. Or maybe I’m misusing the term. Back-yard breeders are what’s being discouraged, at least as far as I can tell.
I mean, what’s the problem with a $100 fee to encourage people to get their pets fixed? It’s intended to give an extra motivation to those who generally have no reason to put out the effort. If you have a dog you actually want to breed—a relatively small number of people ever do this intentionally—it’s a fairly small fee.
I don’t see it as a big issue. Certainly not an infringement of rights. No one has a “right” to keep a pet, at least in the Constitutional sense.
this is basically one of those “they won’t know if you don’t tell them” laws. nothing more than a piggy bank for the county, like toll booths that were intended to pay for roads yet are still there after the road is paid for. i know, bad analogy, but this law is pointless. it’s kinda like that gun insurance law, and laws like “you can’t walk backwards down main street with ice cream in your pocket”. I guess I would have no problem with this law if the money goes to animal shelters?
advocacy on WHY spaying/neutering is the right thing to do would be smart. i had my cat neutered simply because of the health reasons.
The real deal is, if we are responsible pet owners and love your dogs, we would not allow them to run free under any circumstances. The dangers are many, the justifications few. I use to behave this way, the result, two collisions with front bumpers, one collision with a porcupine, three or four with skunks and a suspected incident where my dog, in the company of her pal, attacked a goat.
In Henderson County the local leash law is driven by complaints. All this to placate the locals who have always allowed their dogs free run. It’s no leash law at all. It’s a joke. There is no licensing down here so even if you had a mind to approach a dog, for what, it will not have more than rabies tag which makes it problematic to find out to whom the dog belongs.
