On a lighter note my beautiful wife sent me this article yesterday about a proposed animal hoarding law which caused me to have an existential crisis of sorts. Basically for people who do not like to read Illinois lawmakers are proposing a law that would define someone who owns more than six companion animals as an "animal hoarder" My wife and I are the proud owners of thirteen animals: two stray cats, a cockatiel, and ten turtles many of them rescue turtles. I fully agree that animal hoarding is problematic but then I thought seven is not that many pets after all I have thirteen in a two bedroom apartment. This law is problematic for two reasons: (1) what right does the legislature have to just arbitarily tell someone how many cats they can have absent a threat to public health and (2) in theory I can kill most animals for food even boil them alive but it is problematic to take in six or more abused animals this seems to be ridiculous right? Then the crisis started and I was faced with the abyss of determining whether or not I was an unrepetant animal hoarder. I went back and forth in my mind between being a mentally ill hoarder and a vegan defense attorney animals rights crusader who takes in the huddled masses of abused animals. After hours of soul searching I came up with the following theory if you have more animals than you can handle both humanely and hygenically then you are a hoarder and this should be illegal. Having ten turtles is far different than having ten cats or ten dogs also I decided not to move to Illinois and push my luck. However, if you do not hear from me for several months it is possible that I have been arrested as a prisoner of conscious for refusing to obey a new Ohio animal hoarding law. Power to the vegans! I will not surrender my rescue animals until you surrender your hamburger.
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As you point out, it's interesting that they've picked an arbitrary number that doesn't take into account the size of the residence, number of human occupants, and type of animal. I mean, think of all the people that have large fish tanks. I don't support people having huge numbers of dogs and cats cramped together in unsanitary conditions, but really there is a long way to go on animal welfare legislation on all fronts and this seems like an odd place to start.
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