02/22/2024
This is quite long, but, if you want to know how government regulations can strangle freedom, read it all the way to the end.
Very pertinet for any animal breeders!
Permission to share and crosspost has been given.
Is There Truly Such a Thing as a “Harmless” Regulation? The little boy grinned up at me holding his precious offering. He clutched the box tightly, no doubt at the urging of his mother. I could tell by her demeanor- her hand encouragingly resting on his shoulder- that I was supposed to address my courtesies towards her son. “How may I help you today?” I asked the young boy. He looked to be about six or seven years old, and although I knew he had been in our pet shop before, I couldn’t recall exactly what they had purchased. He stared at me wide-eyed, looked as though he was about to speak, but instead just thrust the box in my hands. “What do we have here?” I asked. “Baby Gerbils!” the boy gleefully shouted, his excitement finally overcoming his shyness. I opened the box to find some of the sweetest, fattest baby gerbils I had seen. I complimented him on the excellent job he had done caring for them, and got my book out to write down the animals I had purchased, and upon paying him, asked him to sign his name that he had received the money. He looked at his mother, and seemed mesmerized that he was important enough to have to sign his name on such a record. We had a policy of offering a reduced price for supplies bought with the money earned in such a transaction, and it was always satisfying to watch the excitement and enthusiasm that would occur as the concept of increased buying power was grasped for the first time in such a young mind. Usually, one of the first things to happen after a child had sold some of their pets’ offspring was an amazing transformation from pet owner, to pet breeder/entrepreneur. The child would not only learn about animal husbandry, but genetics and nutrition. In addition to discounted merchandise purchased with their animal raising dollars, we also would let them have the option of trading a baby they had raised for an unrelated animal from our inventory at no extra charge. Soon, we had families who wanted to time their trips to coincide with the arrival of other people’s animals to get the best selection. Friendships were formed, and this symbiotic relationship seemed to help produce compassionate, responsible young children and teens, as well as supply our store with pets that were healthy and well socialized. In addition to boosting our small business, this aspect of our store allowed us to help young- and even not so young-people in the community enjoy their hobby while actually making a little money from it. One of the most amazing things to me was how by selling this little, inexpensive pet (although we usually brokered most of them, retail price for gerbils was and is only $10.00 in our store) we were able to actually foster a thriving little economy that was self-perpetuating. It was amazing to see it start, like a little smolder. One family would decide to buy their child a pet gerbil. Frequently, the parents would buy a book on gerbil care, food, bedding and a cage or aquarium to put it in. If the child was responsible with their pet, they would soon be back for another, with hopes of raising little ones. We would explain our baby buy-back program, and the little boy or girl would usually tell us that we wouldn’t be seeing any of THEIR babies in a pet store, they had a waiting list! Thankfully, we would usually get to see some of the friends and family come buy cages and supplies for the 1 little pets produced in the first litters. Eventually, family and friends would have all they wanted, and our little customer would begin bringing their furry certificates of responsibility in to sell. This process would replicate itself in varying degrees among the other friends and family members. The web of a particular type of pet’s popularity whether gerbil, hamster, guinea pig or rabbit- would go through a school, a neighborhood, church group, or other social group for several weeks, or even months or years. It was very satisfying to know that something we were doing was providing jobs to other people. Items were being manufactured and sold that otherwise would not have been utilized by consumers if not for our successful retail practices. People bought exercise wheels, food, toys, vitamins, bedding, aquariums, cages, mini litter scoops, mineral blocks and books. Some people even bought very fancy cages and expensive plastic-tube small animal playgrounds. Every item purchased, each pet placed in a new home, generated taxes for our community and state, as well as jobs for fellow citizens. Successful small animal breeders frequently watched their little business venture snowball into new customers that then became friends, and new homes for the pets that they produced who in turn also purchased items that would help others be employed. This sector of capitalistic ingenuity fostered an economic and educational bonanza- simultaneously teaching many area children how to be compassionate, responsible, resourceful and innovative. Children honed social skills by learning to conduct business transactions in a safe environment in an actual business as well as learning to interact and share a hobby with other children. All of this, the entire microcosm that represented the very backbone of the American dream, effectively came to a grinding halt with just the simple application of a few animal-rights laws. The changes were almost imperceptible at first. We were required to fill out a form when we sold the animals at wholesale, which seemed reasonable, but soon we were told that we must obtain a name and an address from each person selling us animals, too. This was easy for our long-time customers. They knew us, were confidant in their desire and ability to care for their animals, and even though it seemed odd that Uncle Sam wanted to know their identity and address, they would obligingly fill out the very official looking government forms. New would-be small animal raisers, instead of proudly signing their names in my book, were now asked to share where they lived to a complete stranger, on a form that seemed to allude to the idea that they were somehow being bad, and just might get bad enough that the government needed to know how to find them. Instead of pride that came from providing others with healthy pets to enjoy, I saw children now anguish over whether or not we were filling out the forms correctly. The forms asked an animal’s age, s*x, apparent health status, as well as a physical description. Most of the time, determining whether or not baby gerbils were boys or girls required ingenuity. If we 2 couldn’t get them to hold still, we would put them in a clear plastic container and look from beneath. We asked our inspectors if all of this was necessary. To the best of our ability, it was necessary, they said, and the small print on the backs of the forms stating risk of fines and/or imprisonment for non-compliance, backed-up their assertions. Unfortunately, we simply could not drop everything to look at rodent crotches every time we bought a kid’s gerbils. If we had several groups of customers waiting, they would get particularly upset if we took too long to deal with filling out the paperwork correctly. We decided our best bet would be to just start estimating, especially when buying dwarf hamsters. Now, when children tried to help fill out the paperwork, and decided to try to determine how many boys and girls were there, when I chose to guess for time’s sake, I was viewed as sneaky. Difficult to explain to a child that you will check later, when in fact they now think you are underhanded enough to lie to the government and risk fines and/or jail time. We were making a grand total of $1 for each gerbil that we sold wholesale to a distributor for re-sale to other pet shops. What used to be something I looked forward to, buying little critters from young customers was now, more often than not, an onerous task; riddled with legal mandates. If I had bought from them before, people now expected me to remember their names; after all, I had written it down along with their address, hadn’t I? Gone were the days where I could simply write what I had purchased for a record of cost of goods sold with their signature of receipt of funds. Now I had to make my busy customers wait for the form to be filled out. If I was waiting on other customers, now they had to wait. Some parents and grandparents, who had cheerfully brought their children and grandchildren in to sell their pet’s offspring in the past, would now act as though they were doing something distasteful: due to the intrusive government involvement. “I don’t know why I need to give you my address just to sell a couple of gerbils” was a frequent mantra. Then, the raids began to be more publicized. A man who had raised guinea pigs for many years had them all confiscated by the government. It made the local news. “Can they come into my house and see my set up?” People asked. Yes, they could, I would tell them. It wasn’t long and the inspectors began calling and harassing our customers trying to get them to pay for annual licensing fees and inspections. A sweet friend who raised some of the best pet bunnies I had ever seen had a surprise visit from the government, based off the forms we had filled out from the rabbits we had purchased from her. She had suspended cages that she had used for years to raise rabbits. Unfortunately, upon inspection, she was told that her pens were a half-inch too short on one side to qualify as acceptable under the new regulations. Rather than go into debt to try to comply, she decided to simply stop raising pet rabbits. Ironically, it was perfectly fine for her to use those same cages to raise rabbits for meat, but there is a different set of rules for pet rabbits. When our friend stopped 3 raising rabbits, all of her friends who used to raise rabbits stopped as well. It was about an hour’s drive, and without a co-opted quantity it was not worth the cost of gas for them to bring them. Without the rabbits every week, our wholesaler was not able to make enough off the other small animals to justify a weekly trip to pick them up. When we couldn’t sell enough gerbils retail to be able to buy them every week as we had when we had a wholesale buyer, kids would sometimes be stuck with litters of gerbils, hamsters, or other small animals. We used to be able to tell people we could buy all that they could produce. Now, we had to try to sell them two of the same s*x so their pets would not reproduce. The children quickly lost interest, and rather than see them excitedly bring me their pets’ offspring, they more often would bring me their pets, cage and all, and tell me that they just did not have the time for them anymore. At this point, you are probably wondering what gerbils and other small animals have to do with anything that might directly affect you and your family. In my opinion, quit a lot. You see this all happened several years ago. Supposedly, with new laws and regulations people would be monitored to make sure that they were not being neglectful or abusive. I remember the inspectors saying that this or that new rule would have little impact on our business, on our ability to buy and sell animals, and that only people not caring for their animals humanly would be affected. That simply wasn’t true. We were very much affected. It didn’t happen overnight, but the gradual creep was devastatingly effective in a relatively short period of time. Some of our best small animal suppliers were contacted about licenses that were now required for them to be able to continue selling us pets, all because the inspectors had observed several forms showing animals sold to us from that individual in the records we were mandated to keep. I remember one woman calling and offering to sell us all of their cages and animals after receiving a call from an inspector. The inspector informed her that her contact information was obtained from one of our forms, which contained her information from the last time we had purchased baby gerbils from her. She seemed hurt that we would “turn her in” for the few animals they had raised. I explained that the inspectors took all of the forms at their discretion, that we had no control over it, and that she was not the only person that they had contacted. I apologized for the intrusion of privacy, explained that I was legally required to fill out the forms but hated to do so, and said that I really doubted that they raised enough gerbils to need to be licensed. She said that the inspector said she needed one, as they had over three female gerbils. I asked if that was the only reason she wanted out of it, was because of the license requirement. Were her children still interested? Yes, they were still interested she said. But she didn’t feel comfortable having someone come out to inspect their animals, in their own home, at the inspector’s whim. She stated that although the fee was only $30 or $40 dollars per year, at a “profit” of only $1 per animal if they were 4 lucky, with the added burden of surprise visits to police their small animal care, that it would just be best if they went with another hobby. This was the response in EVERY case for each person we explained the licensing inspection process too. Yes, we had to explain, an animal that it would be legal to leave out poison for should they escape and threaten your home’s electrical wiring, you now must pay the government to come into your home, at their whim, to assure regulated compliance. I actually believe that many people we explained this to thought that we were lying, that we were pulling some sort of twisted joke on them. How could the government actually have the right to access their homes at any time just because they raised a few rodents? What about the Constitution? Good question. The implementation of animal regulation through our pet shop directly resulted in the loss of over 25% of our total annual sales. Indirectly, the losses are much more substantial and more difficult to articulate. There was an entire segment of our local economy that pertained to pets that was destroyed. Children that would have been inspired to learn about economics and budgets as well as animal care, who would often move up to larger and more complicated animals were instead cut off at the entry level. We used to buy hamster/gerbil exercise wheels by the hundred case; no need for quantity purchases now. Because there were now so few hobby raisers, it quit being profitable for the wholesale company to pick-up the limited and sporadic number of animals from our store. Weekly pickups started to be every other week, then finally only as needed. Our customers used to have their choice from many colors and types of small animals and could look forward to new ones each week, most of which had been lovingly played with by the child who raised it, leading to more satisfied customers who also influenced others to get into the hobby. Now we more often had less tame pets. When I think of all of the cages, food, toys, bedding, books and pets that we sold without government intervention, and all of the jobs that all of those supplies represented, it is no wonder we face economic uncertainty in our country. This is why it is so extremely important that each person in their own sphere stand up for individual rights for themselves and others. People who raise any sort of animal, whether for food, utilization as service animals or family pets, for display and performance such as zoos and circuses, and even those used in businesses such as carriage horses, all need to be protected from sometimes well-meaning, but increasingly overzealous animal-rights laws. Currently, one of the sectors of the animal/pet industry that seems most frequently persecuted by such “helpful” government interventions are those people who are raising dogs. Even if you personally would not be interested in ever raising any sort of animal, restrictions placed on other individuals to do so will eventually impact everyone. Many people assume that if they should desire to purchase a particular breed of puppy, for instance, that this option would be available 5 now and in the future. The current animal rights agenda has no room in their movement for such personal choices in this matter, however. Rules and regulations that are arbitrary and burdensome have already had a very stifling effect on the pet industry as well as pet ownership. It is my hope that by sharing my experience of losing our profitable “American Dream” type business because of over regulation, that people who are promoting these types of laws will understand why people, even guiltless people, are reluctant to have government oversight. Often I hear people say that if you have nothing to hide; you shouldn’t mind a government inspection. However, freedom should include the presumption of innocence, especially in the absence of any crime. Should police have the right to frisk you simply for the act of being out in public? Should driving a car be cause for a police search? Would you be willing to have an inspector come to your home unannounced to make sure you are cleaning your bathroom effectively? What about your laundry, dishes, kitchen floor, refrigerator- are these areas ALWAYS ready for inspection, on pain of fine or imprisonment if not? What if they wanted to inspect your home during your daughter’s wedding, while your mother was in the hospital, when your family had the flu, or when you have dinner guests? I know a breeder who was written up for having w**d overgrowth OUTSIDE of his kennel runs, on his own acreage, in the country, outside of city limits. The surprise inspection occurred on the first clear day after several rainy days in the spring. The breeder was outside using his W**d Eater, obviously doing the very activity they were requiring him to do, and he had to stop doing that activity to accompany the inspector during the inspection. He was still written up for the w**ds, however, because the job was not completed before the inspection occurred. Is this really the definition of freedom? Do we want to be suspicious of one another, and regulate even the most mundane aspects of fellow American’s lives just because they raise a few rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, or even dogs? Many dog breeders have already succumbed to the constant harassment and have quit raising dogs. This void is now partially being filled by imports of puppies and dogs from other countries. Not only are we putting hardworking Americans out of work, we are outsourcing the job to places where dogs frequently have even less protection against diseases and parasites. Once born they require much travel before arriving to be sold here, further stressing the pet which risks illness and disease and puts domestically raised dogs at risk. So the next time you are confronted with propaganda telling you that your fellow Americans are in need of constant monitoring, surveillance, and inspections, and that a deficiency of such treatment will result in the basest of behaviors, ask yourself if that is how you would like to approach your job every day? Ask yourself, “Is this what it means to be in a free country?” If the information you are basing your opinions on the matter are coming from organizations that stand to profit from the sensationalism of the news story, 6 be very skeptical. You are likely not getting the whole picture. So stick up for your fellow Americans who are being treated in this manner and help put a stop to it. Because not only is sticking together the right thing to do, but it just may be your job that is next if you don’t. Laura Simmons RN About the author: Laura Simmons has raised various animals from the age of four, worked previously as a veterinary assistant, and has owned a pet shop with her husband since 1991. She is currently a Registered Nurse working to promote responsible pet ownership and reproduction that is healthfully beneficial to humans and their pets, via education and limited government involvement
http://www.fancitoypoodle.com Est. 1986
