Since i still can't contact the paper, whether because my emails go to the great spam filter in the sky, or my phone calls hit a full mailbox, I thought I would share it with you folks. It normally reaches what my favorite author, J. A. Jance, calls, "dead tree readers."
VS cyber readers and all. That's you. So here goes. And btw, so great was the outcry over it that this bill has since been scaled back to exempt farm animals. Doesn't matter, it's a terrible, poorly written, horribly-thought-out mess.
Raising the Roof for Animals
If you have a big dog and a low ceiling you’d better watch out. If a bill now in the state Assembly agriculture committee passes, you could wind up in jail. You might face big fines too.
Seriously, I kid you not.
Here is the summary of Assembly bill A830, to which I referred above, “Prohibits tethering, restraining, caging or penning of dogs or animals between the hours of 7 p.m. to 6 a.m; may be tethered to a stationary object or a pen or cage in a sized pen or cage four times the height and length of said dog or animal.”
Sounds innocuous enough, right? But wait. The average Great Dane is 30-34 inches at the shoulder. Add a head on top of that...and who wouldn’t?....and you have a dog well over three feet tall. If you were to pen that pup at night, say in your kitchen, or your bedroom, even on the bed with you, your average eight-foot high ceiling would be inadequate. Even the ten-foot ceilings in this old monster of a house would fail to cut the companion animal mustard.
Because four times three is twelve. Even with my shamefully basic knowledge of math I was able to figure that out. We won’t get into matters of the length of the dog, mostly because I couldn’t find information on just how long a Great Dane is.
Of course not everyone has big dogs, but even an average-sized dog is around two feet at the shoulders, and a good bit higher at the head. Could get a little close in some homes.
Imagine the size crate you would need if said pup was a tad incontinent or chewed electrical cords or socks and underwear when you weren’t looking. Suppose you wanted to confine him at night for his safety and your sanity. I don’t think such a kennel would even fit in our kitchen where our pups spend many of their indoor hours.
But wait, there’s even more. Imagine if this law applied to farm animals, which is in fact intended to be the case. Most horses, our pony Jack excepted, are a lot bigger than even tall dogs. How high and how long would those stalls have to be?
And then there’s this phrase, “Permits the animal to escape harm.” Picture this scenario. A farmer owns a dairy bull that weighs a ton. (I know a guy who used to have several of those. He still lives here, although we no longer own any bulls.) Besides the huge enclosure required for overnight penning or tethering, the pen or stall must allow the creature to escape harm. Just the word ‘escape’ would leave most insurance companies shuddering. Not to mention the neighbors. We have had pigs escape and cows escape and sundry other critters as well. However, the closest we ever had to an escaping bull was when one got into the manger inside the barn. Stable breaks male bovine style are simply not to be contemplated.
The sad thing is that most enclosures, pens, and tethers used for animals are intended for their safety and comfort rather than the opposite. Barns have low ceilings in this region for warmth. An average stable ceiling under this bill would have to be at least twenty feet high. All the heat would rise to the highest possible level while the horses shivered below. The same would be true of cow stables and any other structures that house animals. You know...barns....
Protect the Harvest said of the bill, “If this bill is voted into law, the fines for violations are equally as ridiculous as the regulations. While the first violation would be considered a misdemeanor, the minimum jail sentence is 2 days and up to 6 months. Also required would be community service, a minimum of 48 hours and a maximum of 120 hours. The fine for the first offense is $200 to $1,000. Upon the second offense, the jail time goes up to 10 days, and the fine goes up to $1,000 to $2,000. A third offense will be considered a felony.”
They postulated that crating a puppy overnight could soon lead to felony charges.
This travesty of a bill has been proposed before. It appeared in ‘13, ‘15, and ‘17 under other titles. Linda B. Rosenthal is the sage individual who submitted it. She represents a portion of Manhattan, specifically the Upper West Side and the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen area. For some reason she sits on the Assembly agriculture committee, where the bill currently awaits its fate.
Affordable housing is one of the issues Ms. Rosenthal considers most important, along with animal cruelty. From where I am sitting perhaps affordable housing for animals rather than the ridiculously large, ludicrously expensive, and dangerous structures required by this bill might be a priority.
Meanwhile, the boss pointed out that I should be glad I’m not a zoo keeper trying to figure out how to house a giraffe in NY.
Speaking of outrageous, how about that Super Bowl commercial, you know, the one for a new wireless communications network for mobile phones?
The company shall remain nameless, although certainly not blameless. You can find them easily in the heated discussions on any dairy group you choose. Their ad showed people cheerful chugging “chunky” milk. I cringe to even contemplate such and I’m a devoted dairy fan. Imagine the effect seeing such nonsense would have on someone on the fence about milk. They’d be reaching for a soda in a NY minute.
Predictably dairy farmer reaction was fast and furious, with over 80 comments on the company’s Facebook page by early Monday, mostly from farmers and strongly negative. However, the same was true of folks with no involvement in the industry. One non-farm commenter said, “Everyone involved in the chunky milk commercial should be burned alive.” I am not sure I would go that far but still...
from Northview Diary http://bit.ly/2GgPvpP
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