Shot in the Dark

Trimming The Fat

Joe Doakes of Como Park writes about New York City’s recent decision to stop using city resources to look for lost pets:

It’s sad the City won’t look for lost pets. We lost a cat once and thinking someone may have turned him in, I searched everywhere, for days, visited shelters and even put up posters, without success. Heartbreaking.

So why is New York City being so cruel, so heartless, so cold – does the city government hate kittens and want them to DIE DIE DIE?

Or is this how it looks when actual leadership makes real world budget decisions in a day of declining revenues? Is this what the word “prioritize” means?

Yes, it’s sad lost pets stay lost; but unless you can convince everybody in town to pony up more money for pet searches instead of, say pothole repair, that’s reality. That’s a decision real leadership must make.

Wonder what city services would look like if St. Paul had any leadership?

I’m going to have to try that next time Saint Paul releases a budget; post it, and then throw it open to the audience to see what we cut.

Can’t be any worse than what we have in Saint Paul now.

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Mitch Berg

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8 responses to “Trimming The Fat”

  1. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    Priorities. I would never be one to advocate that police and fire resources be tapped to look for lost pets, but having been a victim of two vehicle break-ins (along with my then neighbors) I questioned the cop on why I had come down to the station to fill out/pick-up the report and he said budget cuts. This was in a city where each City Counselperson was provided with a car and driver (and security detail in some cases) for what was supposed to be a part time job. In the end, I prioritized myself, moving and taking my tax money outside the city to a place where when a neighbors house got vandalized (by vandals armed with chocolate syrup bottles, no less) the cops showed up with a CSI team to dust for prints and a K-9 unit for tracking the bandits.

  2. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    The DFL loves pets. They need all the voters they can get.

  3. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Reading the link, one infers that $1.5 million was previously being spent by the city to find people’s lost pets. This involved city employees going to the main animal pounds and searching on behalf of the owners, which is now something the city employees will no longer do.

    Some may look at this and thing “tragedy”. I look at it and think “opportunity”. An enterprising “Pet Detective” could cut him/herself a chunk of that action by setting up shop and a website in Manhattan. Instead of posting flyers on lamp-posts, pet owners post them to the website, the would-be Ace Ventura makes the rounds of the city pounds a couple times a day and cha-ching!

  4. Johnny Roosh Avatar
    Johnny Roosh

    The DFL loves pets. They need all the voters they can get.

    Where’s the Like Button when you need it!!!

  5. Johnny Roosh Avatar
    Johnny Roosh

    I’m going to get hate mail for this but the fact is, pets are not people.

    (waiting for flying cream pie)

    If I lost my pet (I have none) I would not expect a response from law enforcement any more than if I lost my Blackberry.

    (waiting for flying shoe)

  6. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Of course, the typical liberals want to blame someone else for their mistakes. They lose their pet, usually due to their negligence, but it’s not their responsibility to find it, I mean, God forbid that they have to do it.

    Perhaps this is why they rant against tax and government reductions by fiscal conservatives, with the argument that these items mean “police and fire services will need to be cut,” really means; If that happens, who will find Fluffy when I let her out at night without putting her on the leash?

  7. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    If you live in San Franfreakshow, your pet has civil rights. I wonder when Fluffy will be getting food stamps courtesy of the California taxpayer (what’s left of them)?

  8. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    JRoosh:

    Quit holding your breath for assorted projectiles. This is SitD, not HuffPo or MinnPost.

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