New bill to regulate Pet Industry misses the main point
01日 03月 2005年
Article from the Yomiuri Shimbun Feb 27th 2005
Pet businesses are to be licensed and would be proprietors vetted before being allowed to open a business to ferret out unscrupulous business operators and prevent cruelty to animals. To enable these provisions, and to give local governments the authority to close businesses and revoke the licensees of pet businesses that fail to meet requirements, the liberal democratic party compiled a bill Wednesday to revise the Animal Protection law. This will replace the current system under which a company or individual need only notify the authorities when the shop opens.
The LDP, with the support of coalition partner New Komeito, plans to submit the bill to the current Diet session.
There have been calls for stricter administration of pet businesses following reports of pet shop owners overcrowding cages and abandoning the bodies of dead pets.
According to environment Ministry figures, the number of pet related businesses, including retailers, leasing companies and pet hotels, is increasing by about 1,000 every year, and now totals more than 15,000.
About 10 percent of these businesses have been subject to administrative guidance by local governments for failing to disinfect and maintain pest control or for keeping animals in cramped conditions. Many complaints have also been received from people living near pet businesses.
In addition to regulating shops on the high street, the revised law would regulate online and mail order business, which are currently unregulated.
In some cases, pet businesses have refused to talk to local government instructors, claiming the operator was absent.
The revised law would require employees charged with looking after pets at pet businesses to attend training lectures held by local governments.
The bill also includes measures that require the operators of such establishments pet owners to keep pets in humane conditions.
Under the bill, a permit would be required to keep dangerous animals such as crocodiles and monkeys.
Such animals would also have to have a microchip implanted under their skin containing details on the animal`s owner, so the owner could be held accountable if the animals is abandoned or escapes.
The owner would be liable for any damages caused by errant pets. However, dogs and cats will be exempt from the implantation requirement because the public would be opposed to it.
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It is easy to see how government intervention is going to hurt the pet industry over here. They are attempting to pass this bill without any warning at all. And they are missing the core problem areas which are dogs and cats. This makes no sense at all. How many Dogs, and cats, are in Government run shelters waiting to be put down? Hundreds! How many exotics are in shelters? Monkeys? Crocodiles? Ferrets? Rabbits? You could count the numbers on one hand.
I retyped this from the original article word for word, no changes.
For those of us that have always followed the laws it is a slap in the face to be thrown into the same category as the people/companies that caused this problem in the first place. And to be judged in the future by inexperienced government officials that don`t have a clue is an insult that we can not stand for.
I have been to their meetings. And the info is so rudimentary/basic that it is clearly a waste of time. They are under the assumption that these abuses are caused by ignorance when in fact they are caused because the perpetrators simply do not care! You can not teach or instill caring in a person by forcing them to attend government run seminars created by individuals that don`t truly know our market. We who will be effected by these changes need to be involved. They have to involve us or no one is going to be willing to follow any of the new laws, and the black market will just grow larger and the animals they are trying to protect, will be abused even more. They have eyes, but they can not see. Ears but they do not listen. And this all adds up to them having a voice that no one wants to hear.
It is a shame.
