You know, I actually thought common sense was about to
prevail, but I was dead wrong. Months ago, I had heard that Mayor De Blaiso
announced he would remove the egregiously
irrational and moronic New York City ban on ferrets that has inexplicably
existed for years along with plenty of other species.
While lifting the ban on one domesticated animal
wouldn’t have exactly been a tremendous victory for softening the public’s
abysmal attitudes towards truly exotic pets, I figured it would be a step in
the right direction toward equality for all pet owners and their rights to
obtain any pet they are financially and mentally equipped for, regardless of an
animal rights activist thinking you shouldn’t have it or a logic-compromised
health official using confirmation bias (or flat out lies) to determine there
is something wrong with it.
Needless to say, I am almost embarrassed for New York City;
supposedly progressive and considering the legalization of recreational drugs, but still continuing to disallow
the ownership of animals that could never in a million years, even if it tried,
pose the same threat to the Big Apple’s citizens as the very legal dogs and
cats.
These two species must be on some special can-cause-any-amount-of-harm-as-they-please-but-will-never-be-regulated
list. In fact, the state of New York even prohibits BSL (breed-specific-legislation)
and instead favors fairly assessing the animals as individuals. Despite deaths
and disfigurement from dogs, and painful, prone
to infection scratches and bites by kitties, apparently the fact that
“four ferret bites have been reported in New York City from 2008 to 2014. [Health Department staff say]”
….and asinine speculations about the animals crawling
through walls even though not one case of this has been reported (and really, who cares if there was?) is enough to
keep these ‘vicious’ pets illegal and considered ‘wild animals’, an utterly
meaningless label for lazy thinkers.
True wild animals live in or are from the wild, but some people consider any animal
that is not domesticated to be ‘wild’, like a raccoon. However, ferrets are domesticated! So even that
crude definition flops.
The vote was 3-2 to lift the ban yet 6 votes were needed, and 4 voters didn’t show up (a big thank you to them
for this spit in the face to all that is reasonable and sane).
Who are the clueless people on NYC’s Board of Health that
voted against lifting the ferret ban?
One of them is Dr. Lynn Richardson, a genius who had this to
say:
"I have to say that, at this point, I'm not at all convinced that it wouldn't be a substantial health risk to allow ferret ownership in New York City," said board member Dr. Lynn Richardson.”
A SUBSTANTIAL
health risk?? A tiny little ferret?? An animal that is owned across the country
in 99% of states with zero fatalities and incredibly rare instances of significant
harm (most or all occurring with defenseless infants and negligent decision-making)
country-wide?
I have no choice but to conclude that Richardson is either a
massive idiot or a member of the animal rights movement, not wanting people to
open their eyes and start thinking ‘hey, if it’s unfair to judge ferrets for
not being as harmless as fluffy pillows, what if…call me crazy…are we also being unjust to
owners of more exotic animals and arbitrarily banning them just because we find it abnormal?’
When even harmless domesticated animals can’t catch a break, you can
be sure that non-domesticated animals will never see the light of day in the
city.
There was one faint glimmer of hope, I’d like to thank Dr. Joel
Forman who was “struck by "the idea of equity” and expressed that it’s not
fair to single out one animal for the same problems that legal animals cause [!].
Why, thank you Joel, that is actually ridiculously reasonable
and fair. Too bad not everyone agrees with the idea of treating citizens with
that level of respect.
Ferrets make superior
pets to many dog breeds in apartments. I am dumb-founded that it’s perfectly
legal to bring a border collie into your NYC apartment (a terrible, horrifically
unsuitable breed for this) but the wonderfully space-efficient ferret is deemed inappropriate.
Where’s Rod Sterling?
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