Originally Posted by prairiepanda
Many municipalities do regulate the ownership of dogs, cats, and other common pets. Every city I've ever lived in has required dog registration which is to be updated annually for a fee, and most have required cats to be registered as well(cats usually only require a one-time registration, though; not sure why they are often dealt with differently). For small animals, the regulations tend to be more relaxed and harder to enforce. For example, having limits set on the total number of caged animals allowed in a household or per square meter of property. Many cities have very specific guidelines for "farm" animals as well, if they're allowed at all within city limits as pets. The city I currently live in has bylaws which go into great detail about the space requirements of specific animals being kept as pets within city limits, including guinea pigs, rabbits, and "small rodents"(rats, mice, hamsters, etc.) among other animals. For reptiles, however, there is very little regulation. They have banned a good chunk of reptiles altogether, but the ones that are allowed have no regulation at all. It would be nice to see reptiles being recognized as much as mammals, but unfortunately people tend not to care about their wellbeing as much.
Obviously it's unreasonable to expect enforcement of specific care guidelines, especially with the overwhelming variety of different reptile species in the pet trade and their different needs. But these things aren't normally enforced based on the care given. They're enforced when it's brought to bylaw enforcement's attention that your animals are clearly sick and/or dying. "Mistreatment" is judged by the health of the animals. For example, where I live, there is a bylaw describing the kind of enclosure a pet goat must be kept in. If someone is keeping their goat in a different enclosure and the goat is not suffering or ill, they won't be reported and thus nothing will happen. But if the goat is injured due to the poor design of the enclosure and someone reports it, the owner will be fined and can have the animal confiscated. In the case of registered dogs, if the owner is charged for a very serious offense regarding the care of the dog, they will not be able to license any other dogs. That doesn't prevent them from secretly getting a new dog without a license(unlikely since whoever reported him would probably notice), but at least it's a deterrent.
Great idea; many breeders do it already, or at least provide care sheets on their websites. But how would you enforce such a thing? It's good practice for breeders, sure, but not something I can see being applied as a law.
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