Bay Area Mindset: No More Pets

If you needed another reason to find out that people who are sequestered in San Francisco or its environs operate on a different wavelength than the rest of the entire Western world, look no further.  The list of things which are absolutely verboten within the city limits has grown to include handguns (later struck down by the state Supreme Court), circumcision, plastic bags, smoking pretty much anywhere outside of your home, toys in kids' meals, the battleship U.S.S. Iowa (!!!), sitting or laying down on the sidewalk, and the unsolicited delivery of phone books.  YES, PHONE BOOKS.

The newest idea to ensure the unique common-sense deficiency of the Bay Area is set in stone is an inititative to be put on the ballot for voters in November to ban the sale of all pets within the city.  Quoth the L.A. Times:

[T]he Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors, and it hopes to protect everything from Great Danes to goldfish.

Yes, goldfish. And guppies, gobies, gouramies, glowlight tetras, German blue rams. No fish, no fowl, no reptiles, no amphibians, no cats, no dogs, no gerbils, no rats. If it flies, crawls, runs, swims or slithers, you would not be able to buy it in the city named for the patron saint of animals.


 Representatives of the $45-billion to $50-billion-a-year pet industry call the San Francisco proposal "by far the most radical ban we've seen" nationwide and argue that it would force small operators to close. Animal activists say it will save small but important lives, along with taxpayer money, and end needless suffering.

It's easy to see that the bill was made to react to the puppy mills and kitten factories, which are not nice places.  But somewhere along the line, the lawmakers got it into their heads that, hey, why not just extend the ban to EVERY SINGLE ANIMAL, regardless of what or where they are?

The ban does not prohibit the sale of live animals for eventual human consumption, like crabs, lobsters, or Rhode Island Reds.  (At this point I would say something about the questionable cuisine of Chinatown, but come on.  That's far too easy.)

...I've got nothing.  San Francisco is a liberal social entity unto itself, and deserves to fall in the ocean with the rest of this morally destitute and ass-backwards state.