Liberty Suffers A Blow In Huntington Beach

There are some firsts of which to be proud, like being the first man to walk on the moon.

Being the first city in California to force people to spay/neuter their cats and dogs and implant them with a microchip is not a "first" I would put in the "source of pride" category.

The Huntington Beach City Council's 4-3 vote to snap another twig off the tree of liberty is an example par excellence of picayune, pedantic nanny statism.

Kudos to Councilmembers Don Hansen, Joe Carchio and Jill Hardy for voting against this invasive nonsense.

Anti-kudos to Councilmembers Keith Bohr, Cathy Green, Debbie Cook and Gil Coerper for tossing one more costly mandate onto the lives of HB citizens.

According to the OC Register:

Animals exempt from the program would be law-enforcement dogs, service dogs and animals bred for competition. Veterinarians can also make exemptions if they decide the sterilization surgery would be unsafe because of the animal's age or health condition.

And if you just want your dog to have puppies, or just think maybe you will? Sorry. We just don't do that sort of thing in Huntington Beach. And if you do, we'll fine you between $150 and $500.

Sometimes I wonder if it ever occurs to councilmembers -- even for a moment -- who vote for these kind of nanny state measures "You know, this really isn't any of the government's damn business!"

I have a suggestion. Cities are always complaining about the state and federal governments burdening them with unfunded mandates -- yet here are four HB councilmembers voting for an unfunded mandate on their citizens.

This strikes me as an opportunity for the Huntington Beach City Council to take a stand against unfunded mandates and pay for the cost to HB residents for compliance with this ludicrous law.

Comments

[Bladerunner]

I thought Irvine was the City of Social Engineering, not Huntington Beach(interestingly, the City of Irvine supported the Levine bill to make this a statewide mandate.)

So much for mutts!