Dinner Table Discussion: Don't Feed the Animals!

[XLFD]

The following is a liberal paraphrasing of two dinner table discussions I had with two other great minds.  The subject of the new proposed ordinance to ban the feeding of stray animals in the City of Ludington.  In case you missed the initial ordinance it said:

 

No person shall intentionally feed, make available nor allow another person to make available food, for any animal (whether domesticated or wild) not owned by them on public property or private premises. This prohibition excludes the following:

The use of bird feeders on private property used for the purpose of feeding wild birds.

The short-term feeding of animals owned by another on private property wherein specific permission was given to them by the owner of said animal.

 

Yes, we paid the City Manager good money to think this out and the City Attorney good money to draft this lemon.  I don't know what the City Elders are thinking, but we had a good time with it.  My comments are prefaced with X, while person 2 is Y, and person 3 is Z.  Hey, it's better than Mr. Brown and Mr. Pink, et. al.



X:  So that's what this new law says, if you don't own the animal you can't feed it, unless you are given permission to by its owner.  Or if you're using a bird feeder to feed wild birds.

Y:  So you couldn't feed tame birds with your bird feeder?

X:  Um, if you own them; if you don't own them or have permission you're going to be cited.

Z:  What if you don't use a bird feeder to feed birds?

X:  Not allowed for wild birds.



Y:  Or for those you don't have permission to from the owner.  Hey, can you go fishing?

X:  Hmm.  I would think not, if it was baited. 

 

Y:  But, wait.  You are still feeding it, even if its trying to eat plastic or a metal hook.  It's going into their mouth.

Z:  But couldn't you say you owned the fish after it was on the hook?

X:  That's stretching it, you fed it before it was hooked-- and you still haven't landed it at that point.  I say you're getting a ticket from the Code Enforcer.

Z:  Well, I guess I have to leave Ludington if I want to fish. 

Y:  What about mousetraps?  The mice eat the cheese or peanut butter you put on there.  But you usually don't put them outside...

X:  The new law makes no distinction on whether it is publicly fed or fed in your own domicile.

Y:  That's not good.  You can't trap mice, or anything else.

Z:  Do they define what an animal is?

X:  No.

Z:  Then what's preventing them from ticketing you for getting bit by a mosquito?  They are animals, and you fed them, unwittingly.

Y:  And what if a fly lands on your food.  You know its eaten some-- after puking.

X:  I guess that might just be a ticket, if the Code Enforcers or LPD sees it happen.  And you better make sure there are no maggots in your garbage.  Those guys work for the City, and you could get multiple violations reported on you. 

Y:  What about bookworms and closet moths, they eat your stuff?

X:  Ticket.

Z:  A neighbor's dog eats your prize flowers...

X:  Civil infraction, definitely.

Y:  Bees pollinating your flowers.  No, bees pollinating flowers on public land!  Then the City Manager gets a ticket.

Z:  Humans are animals too, even Shay.  All those soup kitchens and food banks are going to go out of business or pay dearly.



Y:  They need to put "Don't Feed the Animals" signs at all entrances to Ludington.

X:  Unexpected consequences of a bad law...

[Sweater Cows!]

Here Zoner photo free link is my photo program. the free version I started using a couple years ago is far beyond anything I will probably ever have time to learn the intricacies of, but for a free version it can do  a ton of stuff and is not too complicated. the main page of the site is here Zoner Main page. The open office suite Open Office  is a free program that *very much*resembles and shares file types with Microsoft Office and people can join to help with the project.

Those still using wordpad for text should know "OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. "

 

Another good program is CUTEpdf, you can download it and then 'print' to the file of it and it turns a regular file into a pdf file. Cute pdf is free It works for anything that can be printed, so of you are using a program that doesn't have a format where you can attach it to an email this program will allow you to convert it to pdf to attach to emails. It is really easy to use.

[XLFD]

Thanks.  I will check Zoner out in detail  soon, and thanks for the tip on Cute.pdf, it may come in helpful.

[Willy]

That is hilarious. Don't forget tape worms.

[XLFD]

Tape worms and lice had actually come up in the conversation, with a consensus of those animals being owned by the person afflicted with them.  Besides it would make people less likely to go to a health professional if they could get ticketed for such, and so I think it may fall outside the scope of the law.

[AQUAMAN]

The impression I got from tonight's LDN article on same subject, is that the CC voted to allow private property owners an exemption from the new ordinance. Umm, don't we already have private property rights they have no legal venue over all our American lives? As per our forefathers'? And to further question is the idea of a Neuter and Release program, not to be funded by the City of Ludville. Hmm, they think up the idea, then say you the public get a program together with donations? Since when does such a hair-brain scheme become our financial responsibility? Mason County Animal Control will no doubt exit any help, as they are funded by Mason County funds, but, the problem imagined and conceived here by COL (CM Shay), is in city limits. Curious, will they now propose the addition of a new department of Dog/Cat Catcher, being appointed by the CC? Methinks this could just be around the corner if residents don't find an emergency situation to get concerned about, and esp. in these tough financial times already.

[XLFD]

The discussion continued last night, engrossing the listening throngs of citizens.  The LDN reports on LDN's Business Mgr., Alan Nichol's, showing why the Manistee Law Firm serving as our City Attorney doesn't have to write Ludington law, apparently had proposed an amendment that they were considering, it said: 

 "No person shall intentionally feed, make available nor allow another person to make available food for any cat (whether domesticated or wild) on public property or private premises other than the primary residence of that person.  This prohibition excludes the short-term feeding of cats by another on private residential property wherein permission was given them by the owner of said property."

He narrows it down to the feeding of cats, and then tries to put the same stipulations in the law that our City Attorney Firm from Manistee did that makes it ridiculous to almost all.  That firm's representative at the meeting, this week starring Dick Wilson, said Nichol's resolution should change "allow" to "assist" so that it would not be a crime to see someone doing this (the heinous act of feeding a hungry domestic cat inside their secondary residence) without physically stopping them.  The council also discussed removing the word "primary" from it.

All in all, there were 33 column inches of story relating to this.  Nichol's also added a bird clause-- equally as ridiculous to the original bird clause suggested.  Two people who live on Filer Street downtown shared their common complaints about cats breaking into their property in the winter, spraying cars, getting into the trash, and that food left for cats would attract rats and mice.

Instead of criminalizing feeding a cat or bird, let's rethink this with a more sensible approach to quell the complainers.  If your building can be broken into by a cat in the winter, you get ticketed; if you cannot cat-proof your garbage, you get ticketed.  I am not suggesting such laws, but these goofballs will still have these problems if others don't feed strays, as well as rats and mice problems.  And my gosh, if you are leaving food in a place where cats will come, then only the very foolish rats and mice will come and be eaten.

LDN's Editor Lloyd Wallace, to his credit, commented on the negative aspects of the law. 

One would think that with the price of cat food so high, there are few who would go and actively feed cats, hence if there are a plethora of cats (which I have not noticed) there must be enough 'wild' food out there for them to exist. 

The main idea is, why have such a law on the books that make our community look so unsympathetic to cats, wild birds, and good Samaritans?  It just makes no sense.

[AQUAMAN]

As Mayor, I would have hired our own MC Animal Control, under a limited and legal contract, (if even truly warranted as a serious problem), to eradicate the alleged animals/cats that are running wild in the locale of Filer and James, and clean out a simple nuisance of a few cats, maybe there's 5, maybe 10-15, so big deal. But what do our leaders with imagination, vision, and public safety oriented mentalities suggest, dump it in the laps of the public. This is our leadership at the helm of the City? Makes a person just wonder........ and gasp at the logic and priority of such a situation to begin with..........lol.

[XLFD]

I know this whole business is probably just a sideshow by the City, but I wonder what the purpose is.  Everyone I talk too about it just think its silly as all get out.  Perhaps they want to show the City Council just concerns itself with dumb things like this, so it will dull the impact of my upcoming campaign literature, LOL.

Anyhow, we are submitting a FOIA to find out the extent of the 'complaints' they got before acting on this issue.  We'll publish those findings, unless we just get an irrational fee assessment from Herr Shay-- in which case we will publish his response. 

[Sweater Cows!]

since when do cats spray CARS. They might walk over them, but do they sniff the tires like a dog and lift their leg as well? i just love the visual on that one. That sounds like absolute nonsense, unless of course ppl have junk cars that cats can get in to and use as dens. But considering we have a junk yard I can tell you the cats that come to live don't "spray" the cars. And cats break into buildings? really? woodchucks are relentless but cats need a pretty easy access, unlike the woodchucks cats won't tear stuff apart just to get in, they usually take the path of least resistance. And as far as trash, umm what are they doing, not using cans or a dumpster. Oh and it said about them pooping in the yard. Has anyone here EVER seen a cat poop out in the open like that? I sure have not.

[XLFD]

All I know, and let it be known that I am not an expert on animal behavior unlike the members of City Hall, is that when I see cats out during the winter, they are smart enough to get under the car where its warmer, even if the engine is hot.  As the ground may be too hard to dig, some might litter underneath it, and this would be the only time a cat would poop on the ground.  Their instincts have them dig.  This means most will dig into snow and drop as well.

Again, as Lando says, take care of your trash and winterize your house, and the cat problems voiced at the council won't happen.  No extra City workers needed.

[AQUAMAN]

It would appear to me that Mayor Henderson needs to get advice and counsel on even the smallest and most mundane subjects these days, and perhaps always has. If he's not smart enough to handle this cat problem without the input of the city attorney and city manager, along with the votes of the council to back all this nonsense up, then what type of leader does this portray? A very ineffectual and weak one at best imho. I think the entire job is over his head most of the time, way over. He doesn't need the input and waste of taxpayers dollars for such actions, even if they are serious and warranted. Trouble is, the entire matter is silly as all get out to begin with, and shouldn't have warranted anyone's serious attention to begin with imho. How this guy got as far as he did in city politics, is just unbelievable. The true blame lies within us all that live in the city limits and votes, to let someone of this lack of common sense take the reigns of power to lead. He gets an F grade in his role as Mayor as far as I am concerned. I hope and pray the next candidate is born and raised here, or here for a long period, that really knows the town and people and history, and has a sense of duty and common sense to get something done for the locals, not the tourists for a change.

[Edie Lindsey]

I find it hard to believe that the Ludington Drily News has actually treated this story with any seriousness.  I mean, here we are making a law telling people how to give out food to animals by trying to create a public health issue on it.  How many CC sessions have been wasted so far on this topic, three?  And the proposed ordinance hasn't even had its first reading yet. 

Maybe we should just have the City Councilor play Dungeons and Dragons on two Monday nights of every month?   Oh shoot, the two Johns would be fighting over who was to be the Dungeon Master!