Pet Taxes
To combat puppy mills, the Tennessee legislature is proposing (gasp!) taxes:
Pet food would be subject to a new tax and persons selling more than 25 dogs or cats would have to be licensed under legislation debated to a standstill in a Senate committee on Tuesday.
The bill would also mandate inspections and investigations of animal abuse. The tax would pay for that. Bubba opines that it is good legislation. The bill would tax pet food and require a tax license of $75.
Puppy mills are atrocious, horrible things. I think this is a start but I doubt it will be very effective. I tend to think that people operating puppy mills are not inclined to obey the law. However, it does set up another means of prosecuting unethical breeders.
April 15th, 2005 at 8:48 am
What’s next? Taxing illegal drugs? Oh wait…
April 15th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
Taxing any industry tends to hurt that industry. On the rare occasion where you’re dealing with an industry that really ought to be hurt, why not?
April 15th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
I’m all for licensing breeders but the pet food tax will impact anyone who buys pet food and not just the breeders.
April 15th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
This is an area where I suspect regulation is probably needed. But then, I’m a liberal, so I’m supposed to think that. I have backyard breeders on both sides of me (mastiffs on one side, boxers on the other), and how they do things drives me nuts.
The problem is, any regulation I could conceive of would be difficult to support. You might be able to tackle the pet shops that sell puppies and kittens, but those have mostly lost favor anyway. How are you going to effectively deal with back yard breeders? I don’t see an effective way.