S.F. considers banning sale of pets except fish

[Emit]

Sell a guinea pig, go to jail.

That's the law under consideration by San Francisco's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare. If the commission approves the ordinance at its meeting tonight, San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country's first ban on the sale of all pets except fish.

That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.

"People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don't know what they're getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized," said commission Chairwoman Sally Stephens. "That's what we'd like to stop."

San Francisco residents who want a pet would have to go to another city, adopt one from a shelter or rescue group, or find one through the classifieds.

~snip~

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/08/MN9L1EAT90.DTL#ixzz0tEFyWWf3

[stray cat]

1. No more purebreds of any type

and maybe eventually no more pets as shelters will only have animals they can't place

[SheilaT]

2. Purebreds can be found at animal shelters

more often than you'd realize. And there are always the rescue groups.

Would the law affect breeders?

Even if San Francisco passes that law, it's only one city. And literally millions of cats and dogs are euthanized every year.

About a decade ago I did volunteer work at my local animal shelter. And they had a hand out which illustrated the vast numbers of unwanted cats and dogs this way: In order for there to be no unwanted, and therefore no euthanized cats or dogs, each family in this country would have to have something like three cats and four dogs, or maybe it was seven cats and three dogs, I forget the exact numbers, at any given time. Whatever the exact numbers, it was clearly a lot more than most families would want, or than most of them could accommodate, especially those living in small apartments. We have so far to go before there would be no more pets, that it's hardly worth considering.

[DBoon]

3. No lizards?

Is there a gecko rescue group then?