San Francisco Considers Banning Sale Of Pets Except Fish

I should be allowed to buy whatever I can afford. Dogs, cats, people... well maybe not so much the people... but dammit I will buy damn dog whether its legal or not. Commys!

Damn straight! Make it nationwide!

about fucing time we start to truly value life above commodities

I've never bought a cat or a dog from a pet store, and doubt that many people do. I did buy chinchillas a long while back, but chinchillas are more difficult to find.

Ban pet sales, ban soda pop because of sugar, but lets legalize pot. What a bunch of looser idiots !

Most pets have it better than some humans... I mean just because they're not in their natural habitat? My damn dogs are spoiled little brats, they get everything a dog could possible want... that goes for most people I know too. I mean pets are even medically treated now... this is so stupid, ahaha. Come on, they're domesticated animals...

San Francisco is the perfect example of Liberal hell. Every time you turn around they are banning something else, with the exception of vice and illegal immigrants.

San Fransisco reminds me of the South Park of the Margaritaville machines that ruin the economy, and the people controlling the economy chop off a chicken's head and watch it run around till it lands on a spot on their decision board. San Fransisco MUST put a lot of stupid ideas on the floor and say "what should we ban next?" then chop a chicken's head off and see what it lands on. That's the only way a single city could make so many stupid decisions.

Dogs were created by domestication over thousands of years of human evolution. If you ban the sale of dogs and cats you're putting animals that WE CREATED that CAN NOT survive in the wild out on the streets, or worse you're euthanizing them.

Fuck San Fransisco in the fucking neck, seriously.

I'm on the fence on this one, but San Francisco should try it and see if it works.
There are many other cities or areas that have tried some law or even construction that have been far more destructive than a ban on stores selling animals.

In terms of selling animals:
For birds, at least now we might be able to see them in their natural habitats.
For dogs and cats, it pains me to read up the description of these animals (check petfinder.com) where the stories range from someone leaving a dog on the street to dog fighting/puppy mills. So I'm sure about stopping the sale of dogs and cats would bee good. Especially with breeding toy dogs, come on stop really if you need a toy get a teddy bear.
For snakes and/or iguanas, I knew someone who had a snake and took care of it like you would take care of a puppy (which means with love not the same food), maybe if sold it would stop people from killing them out of fear but I just read up that they breed those particular snakes too so I'm not sure.

Maybe the Zoo might be next and we would have to travel to those animals natural habitats to see them which would be a great reason for a vacation to other countries but maybe not because of poachers.

Added: I feel that they know that dogs even cats would not be let in the wild but they would be better placed in their own type of habitat, like a house/pet hotel with an acre of grass to play, trees and veterinarian and trainers to look after them until they are adopted out instead of a boutique or shopping mall. By the way Iguanas, snakes and birds can be domesticated but they are not like dogs and cats. Iguanas, snakes and birds can live in natural habitats or the wild since they can be re-educated to adapt to their natural environments.

Breaking News: (some) San Fransisco residents still sniffing farts, and our now officially "high" from sheer lack of oxygen to their brains.

I'm all for treating animals properly, not puppy milling them, not owning to many, etc. but to say that a pet store can no longer sale them?

But what will happen to all those young college kids who get the idea to put a hamster in the bottom of their floor model bong (no water of course that would be cruel) and smoke the little fukcer out?

Why do you think they make hamster balls? That's right to trip out your overly stoned friends.

It will be a sad day if this happens, young people will be out of one more wholesome form of entertainment, and I don't think it's fair...

This whole thing just sounds stupid .. I mean what do they think it is going to solve ?? Banning pets ??? Come on .. Only in California

Seems like a pretty silly law to me.

Here is the ENTIRE article!.......

San Francisco considers banning sale of pets except fish

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
July 8, 2010 04:00 AM Copyright . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Images
Jackson Galley, 5, plays with a guinea pig at the Animal ...A Greek tortoise at the pet store could become prohibited...Budgies are available for purchase at the Animal

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.

"People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don't know what they're getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized," said commission Chairwoman Sally Stephens. "That's what we'd like to stop."

San Francisco residents who want a pet would have to go to another city, adopt one from a shelter or rescue group, or find one through the classifieds.

The Board of Supervisors would have final say on the matter. But not before pet store owners unleash a cacophony of howling, squeaking and squawking.

"It's terrible. A pet store that can't sell pets? It's ridiculous," said John Chan, manager of Pet Central on Broadway, which has been in business 30 years. "We'd have to close."

Joe Taylor, bird manager of Animal Connection on Judah Street, called the proposal "ludicrous."

"What difference does it make if you get a parrot at the SPCA or a pet store? If it doesn't work out, in either case, you just bring it back," Taylor said. "This would be terrible for our business."

The idea originated about two years ago, when the commission began looking into a ban on dog and cat sales as a way to discourage puppy and kitten mills. But the city's animal control staff said that excess puppies and kittens are not the problem at the city shelter, thanks to the plethora of rescue groups. In any case, only one or two pet stores in San Francisco sell dogs and cats. The rest stick to small animals.

The hamster problem

The real problem, staff said, is hamsters.

People buy the high-strung, nocturnal rodents because they're under the temporary impression that hamsters are cute and cuddly. But the new owners quickly learn that hamsters are, in fact, prone to biting, gnawing through expensive wiring and maniacally racing on their exercise wheels at 2 a.m.

So the animals end up at the shelter. Just about every species has its own rescue group in San Francisco, but no one seems to want hamsters. Hamsters are the No. 1 animal euthanized at the city's shelter, said San Francisco Animal Care and Control director Rebecca Katz.

"It's definitely a concern," she said. "They're an impulse buy, and we do sometimes get tons of them, especially babies."

Committed "owners"

On Wednesday, the shelter, which is on 15th Street in the Mission District, had six hamsters, nine rabbits, nine mice, nine rats, two guinea pigs, a bowl of goldfish, two birds, a leopard gecko, a bearded dragon and a hermit crab named Charlie.

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."

The commission plans to listen to testimony from pet store owners, among others, before voting. Among the items it will consider is the impact on small businesses, whether to allow the sale of feeder rodents for snakes and other reptiles, the sale of fish, owner education, penalties and rescue groups that host adoptions at pet stores.

"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."

Meeting tonight

San Francisco's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare meets at 5:30 p.m. today at City Hall, Room 408, to consider an ordinance banning the sale of pets, except for fish, in San Francisco.

Euthanized animal companions in San Francisco.

13% Percentage of dogs and cats at the San Francisco animal shelter that are euthanized, including aggressive, injured and sick animals.

35% Percentage of dogs and cats in shelters nationwide that are euthanized.

30% Percentage of hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits and other small animals at the San Francisco shelter that are euthanized.

Source: San Francisco Animal Care and Control

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/08/MN9L1EAT90.DTL#ixzz0t8tQBbuS

Even the commission in San Francisco is hip and caring enough to refer to them as "ANIMAL COMPANIONS," and not "pets," as in the headline.

GOOD FOR SAN FRANCISCO!!! Good for all our animal friends!!!!!!

[Next time 'round, I hope they'll include the innocent fish, too.]