Will the Metro Council become the leader of the pack?
This evening (Sept. 24), the Metro Council votes on an amendment to Title 14 that would prohibit the sale of live animals in public places, commercial and retail areas. While the language is lackluster, the impact is immense for animals, pet owners, rescue groups and the city. By enacting the ordinance, Baton Rouge would become the first city in the state to outlaw the activities of pet peddlers who sell kittens, chicks, bunnies and especially puppies at public venues.
Thankfully, puppy mills have not become big agribusiness in Louisiana. However, tough economic times have yielded an increasing cottage industry of animal vendors. While these individuals may breed 10 dogs instead of hundreds, the problems they create for the animals, the city and families looking for a quality pet are the same: a vast number of poorly bred animals reared in inhumane conditions, including inadequate food, water, shelter, socialization and veterinary care. The more money they make, the more incentive they have to expand operations by increasing both the number and variety of animals to offer litters year-round.
Six years ago, animal rescue volunteer Mari Presedo stopped shopping at the Ascension flea market because she was disturbed by the caged animals for sale. About three years ago, she noticed puppy peddlers had migrated to Baton Rouge. Nearly every weekend, they set up shop in heavily trafficked areas, such as Siegen Marketplace.
While these vendors pay no local taxes and have no significant certifications for their animals, they do have portable credit card machines and a booming business. They feed off potential owners headed toward rescue agency adoption days and curious shoppers, who set out for a wrench rather than a rottweiler.
|
|
At a certain age, a puppy, kitten, bunny and other baby animal is more dangerous than an anaconda; the cuteness factor renders them irresistible. Charmed by a little critter, some Baton Rougeans pay up to $1,000 to strangers on the side of the road for an animal they never intended to own with a background they can never verify.
For some animals, there is a fairy tale (tail?) ending: The healthy little critters go to good, loving homes, where they are cherished for the rest of their lives. But local rescues and animal control agencies tell horror stories.
Typically, reputable breeders and rescue agencies screen potential adopters and will take their animals back if health or certain behavioral problems develop. At the very least, the new owner knows the breeder or agency’s physical address. Since profit is the motive for the puppy peddlers, they rarely spend the time or money to diagnose genetic flaws in their breeding stock or treat illnesses such as giardia that result from their kennel’s terrible living conditions.
For example, by the time, one owner’s Chinese crested puppy was diagnosed with hip dysplasia (a genetic disorder that requires expensive surgery), the parking lot vendor was nowhere to be found. The heartbroken owner had no recourse.
Other times, Presedo notes, “Within two to three months of buying an adorable little puppy, impulse buyers of golden retrievers, pitbulls, great danes and other large breeds wake up to find a horse in their living rooms. They may not have space for a big dog, especially one that wasn’t well socialized as a puppy and one the owner didn’t bother to train.”
Often owner’s big, unruly, puppies, smaller ones in need of expensive medical care and the peddler’s old or sick breeding stock are dumped on roadways and at animal rescues and shelters, where euthanasia is likely due to overpopulation.
East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control has received complaints about the vendors. However, its officers have been limited to making sure the animals on display have adequate water and shade in accordance with Title 14. The agency cannot halt the practice because it is not illegal.
All animal rescue groups could do was grouse—until Presedo received a phone call from Mike Walker, her councilman seeking re-election. After she mentioned the groups’ collective frustration with the issue, Walker referred Presedo to Zona Pickens, an aide who fast-tracked the project through the parish attorney, mayor’s offices and the Metro Council’s finance and executive committee.
If the council approves the action, violators could be subject to up to $500 in fines and/or 180 days’ imprisonment. Besides simply chasing off pet peddlers, Presedo says the passage of the amendment “would show how progressive we are. Baton Rouge, the capital city, is the best place to begin setting this example. Once we set precedence here, we spread the movement to adjacent and surrounding parishes. We would be ahead of the pack in so many ways, and that’s something for people to be proud of.”
Having successfully worked with her councilman to create the ordinance, Presedo is asking East Baton Rouge animal lovers to show their support by attending the Metro Council meeting and to contacting their council representatives.
To contact Metro Council representative about the amendment, write:
Additional contact info can be found on the Metro Council’s web page.
Click here for this week’s Animal Bytes.
Click here for this week’s Creature Feature.
Click here for this week’s City Lynx.
Besides her 20 years of experience as an editor and writer, Adrian E. Hirsch is a charter board member of Spay Baton Rouge, a nonprofit that spays/neuters feral cats and the pets of low-income residents to stem overpopulation; the Baton Rouge coordinator of Gulf South Golden Retriever Rescue, a nonprofit that rescues golden retrievers from shelters and owners, fosters and finds permanent homes for the dogs; and (along with her twin daughters) a member of Tiger HATS, an LSU Veterinary School service organization that offers animal-assisted therapy.
|
|
|
