Forcing Pet Sterilization
LA has passed a law forcing pet owners to have their animals sterilized.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday signed one of the nation’s toughest laws on pet sterilization, requiring most dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 4 months old.
Failure to do so will result in the state bringing its coercive power to bear on you:
First-time offenders will receive information on subsidized sterilization services and be given an additional 60 days. If they still fail to comply they could be fined $100 and ordered to serve eight hours of community service. A subsequent offense could result in a $500 fine or 40 hours of community service.
Here is what I believe. That unless you are raising pure breed dogs you should get your pet seterilized. This is just basic common sense. If you get a pet for companionship then the responsile thing to do is to have your pet sterilized.
However, im fully aware that this is my belief. Other people have other beliefs and I think they are entitled to those beliefs, however, the city of LA disagrees. In LA, people that don’t view sterlizing their pet is a good thing will be forced by the state to do so anyway. That is those that don’t believe what I believe, will be forced to do what I believe.
This story nicely exposes the application of coercive force on those that believe something different, then arguably, the majority. I think its better to just keep the state out of forcing some people’s values and beliefs on to others, but, what do I know, im just a libertarian.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Let’s not be coy. All laws do this- we’re certainly forcing our belief that rape, murder, fraud, driving drunk, and statutory rape are wrong on SOMEONE who disagrees with us. You need to expand the argument either into what percentage of people think something is wrong, or better, who gets hurt if we don’t have the law, and how badly do they get hurt. I agree this law is probably over the line, although I’m more interested in seeing how it plays out since it’s a very local law- this type of law could never pass at a state or federal level.
Actually, the other thing that disturbs me about this law is that it’s obviously not going to be rigorously enforced, since you generally can’t tell by sight if an animal has been neutered. I suspect the law will just be used to punish people that the cops have gotten a complaint against but who haven’t broken any actual laws (ie, someone files a complaint about a loud or aggressive dog, the cops can’t do anything about that but they can bust them on this instead). I’m always somewhat nervous about those types of laws, as they seem designed to give the police discretionary powers of uneven enforcement, which I have to think is a very dangerous road.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:40 am
That’s a pretty effed up law. I know stray cats and dogs can be a problem, which is why Bob Barker encouraged people to have their pets spayed or neutered. However, I do not think having the government force people to sterilize their pets is the answer. If the problem is so bad, LA could educate the public on the matter, pay for the procedures, and encourage people to have their pets spayed or neutered. Perhaps they could even do it through tax incentives. Currently though, this is way more intrusive than I would like to see any government.