[Lilji]

What about the poor fish? They get flushed down the toilet. What about their feelings?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MN9L1EAT90.DTL

S.F. considers banning sale of pets except fish

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, July 8, 2010

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.

The Board of Supervisors would have final say on the matter. But not before pet store owners unleash a cacophony of howling, squeaking and squawking.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0t8wdy3LA