>>Besides, who here vacations even in Ohio?
>
>It actually has a very LARGE tourism industry. BUT we won't vacation
>in Ohio this year and we DO want conditions like those documented at
>the MacKay farm to improve, so there is no good reason to not combine
>the two and use tourist attractions and the tourism board to help
>press for improvements in animal welfare.

The post was phrased in a way which lead me to believe people were
being encouraged to say they vacation in Ohio even if they don't.

>Don't equate changes to stop inhumane actions with local animal number
>restrictions, please. (BTW, some animal number restrictions make sense
>because they stop the abuse of animal hoarding, but extreme
>restrictions make no sense to me.)

Animal hoarding is a mental health issue. Creating limit laws to stop
it is like creating laws which ban OCD or other mental illness. I know
of someone who was a hoarder in my city. This person was arrested, went
to jail, was tried and found guilty - all without limit laws. Part of
the sentence was that the person needed to go to a psychiatrist which
IMO is the most important thing for people who are animal hoarders.
Turns out animal hoarding already is illegal due to the filthy
conditions the animals AND people are living in, as well as the
neglect of the animals.

How many animals a person can care for is an individual thing - not
something which IMO should be controlled by your local government.
We don't have limit laws where I live and I hope it stays that way.

You say shades of gray - well what is ok restrictions in your mind?
Restrictive laws often leads to more extreme restrictive laws - a
slippery slope I guess you'd say.

>It is interesting that you both try to imply that no one vacations in
>Ohio but also try to stop people from letting those vacation places
>know why they won't be vacationing there this year. You can't have it
>both ways...
>
>Sukie (not a vet)

I didn't imply no one vacations in Ohio - I asked how many here do
(read the top of this post). IMHO I think it is ridiculous to not
vacation in Ohio because you are suddenly opposed to DM (who has been
breeding for what 40 or 50 years...all the while you were vacationing
here happily). Do you fully check out state laws on animals before
choosing where to vacation? Do you ask around to see if there are any
places where you might not agree with how animals are being kept before
choosing to vacation somewhere?

And again I actually live here. If all of the out of staters succeed
in getting restrictive laws passed in Ohio nothing will change for
you personally. That is what I object to the most I suppose - you are
trying to change laws where I live, which may well affect me but will
not affect you in any manner.

Nikki

[Posted in FML 5544]