....for now.

The Cleveland City Council should be protecting property rights and in this case it is Cate's rights being threatened.

That's what I think. What do you think?

Give a dog a chain

It is becoming popular to enact legislation to prevent dog owners from using chains or ropes to confine a dog. The idea is to protect the dog from inhumane treatment - i.e. to improve a dog's life. No animal lover could possibly argue against protecting the welfare of one of God's finest creations. But yes, I believe there are serious flaws to the idea.

I own four dogs, or rather, they own me. I really do love them. Next to my faith and my family, they are the most important things in my life.  Even though to the casual observer they are just mangy flea infested mutts, to me they are like children, and like children they rely on me for food, water, protection and love. All these things I give them, plus I worry about their comfort and well-being. I am not a perfect dog owner, but then I am not a perfect husband, father, or anything else for that matter. But I do my best, and yes, you guessed it, they are all chained up outside.

I understand the motives of those individuals who are campaigning to ban all dogs from being tethered for longer than a short period each day. They obviously love dogs too, but I would like to warn them of a flaw in their legislation that will undoubtedly cost many good, healthy and loved dogs their lives, including three of mine.

I own big dogs, what I call outside farm dogs. Apart from the occasional trip to the vet, they have never been inside a house. I have always kept my dogs outside. When they were puppies they were confined to a pen for most of the day and night when not running free, more for their protection than anything else. Now they are dogs, they cannot be allowed to run free, even though I would prefer it. I think you would agree that four big dogs roaming the neighborhood is not a good idea, even though we live in a rural area and own some acreage. Four dogs are a pack, even if individually they are not aggressive, together they take on the pack instinct, so letting them run together is out of the question. Fortunately, if you confine a pack of dogs apart from one, the one will stay close to the others without wondering. This is the situation for my four. Each day each dog takes turn at being released from the chain. One is off at night, the other three split the daylight hours. This system works well for my dogs but it does mean that three of them are chained up for more than twenty hours a day. Not a perfect situation but all the animals are happy and content and are patient in waiting for their allotted time off. And in reality it is not far different from an assembly line factory worker waiting for his shift to end.

If the no-chain law is enacted in Bradley county, three of my beloved animals would be condemned to death, so I ask anyone who intends to push for this legislation locally to consider whether it is serving its purpose for my three and possibly thousands of other dogs in the same situation.

I think this legislation is one of those too frequent laws that have the right intention but entirely a different effect.

That's what I think. What do you think?

Downtown Visionaries

Millions have been spent revamping the courthouse square, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Beautiful trees have been uprooted and replaced with beautiful trees and some would argue that there has been an aesthetic improvement. But to achieve the desired affect has cost parking spaces, spaces that were precious to courthouse visitors. Obviously the visionaries of the new and improved downtown failed to allow for the loss of parking. Or did they?

It wasn't until public employees felt the effect of scarce parking that the heavy wheel of government started to turn. Public employees have a right to convenient parking, but no more than Joe Citizen or downtown businesses. After removing parking... at great expense, a plan has surfaced to replace it at an even greater expense.

Having watched in amazement the past exploits of the Downtown Visionaries it can almost be guaranteed that they will spend vast amounts of public money building a monstrosity that will be an everlasting drain on local taxpayers while affording them little parking relief.

In other words, the same people who screwed up the parking will be the ones to try and fix the problem they created.

Welcome to Cleveland.

That's what I think. What do you think?
.