September 2006          

Time to Declaw and Defang our Government?

By Zuzana Kukol

I always loved freedom, and I always loved big cats.

 When I first moved to the USA in mid 1980s as a political refugee from former communist Czechoslovakia, one of my favorite movies became Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's 'Top Secret!' which is a spoof of Elvis and  World War II underground resistance thriller movies. Val Kilmer plays Nick Rivers, a Presley-like American rock idol sent behind the Iron Curtain to then East Germany on a goodwill tour. East Germans are depicted as Nazis and the Underground is mostly Frenchmen.

The highlight of the movie, at least for me, was the movie version of East German National Anthem, sung to the tune of the Shorewood (Wisconsin) High School marching song.

Considering I just moved from my old oppressive country to the USA, the land of the free, the lyrics at the time were extremely funny and scary at the same time: "Hail, hail East Germany / Land of fruit and grape / Land where you'll regret / If you try to escape / No matter if you tunnel under or take a running jump at the wall / Forget it, the guards will kill you, if the electrified fence doesn't first."

Back then I felt nothing could spoil the wonderful America I just moved to.

I wonder if I would still find the movie and song as amusing now, 20 years later, with US federal and local governments becoming more intrusive into peoples' lives and infringing on personal and property rights and freedoms.

It isn't whether I agree or disagree with the agenda of the ever increasing maze of bans, rules and regulations, my concern is whether government should be micromanaging our lives to this extent as many of the laws in my opinion should be a matter of personal choice, not government mandate.

I drive cars and ride motorcycles. In my state we have seat belt and helmet laws, however, these don't apply to dirt bikes as these are not street legal and therefore don't need to be insured or registered with DMV and so the helmet law doesn't apply.

Do I wear a helmet? You bet I do, as I believe helmets and seat belts save lives.

Do I believe this should be required by law?

Absolutely NOT; it should be my own decision, not the government's to decide if I want to wear them or not.

I wear helmets and seat belts because I believe in them, but I am absolutely against laws requiring their use. I don't need or want the government to protect me from myself.

My next pet peeve is smoking laws. I do not smoke and get physically sick when near cigarette smoke, but I still don't think government should be telling restaurant owners or any private business to not allow smoking in their establishments. It should be up to the customers to decide where they want to dine or conduct business based on their food and smoking preferences.

What will be next, government telling us we can't smoke in our houses either?

And just this summer, from galaxy 'Oppression' (not enough light years away) comes federal Haley's act, HR 5909, a measure that, if enacted, would forbid the public from ever touching big cats, such as tigers, jaguars, lions, leopards, cheetahs  and cougars, even when they are tiny babies. Fines for disobeying would be up to $10,000 if the private owners allow anyone to feed, pet, or play with big exotic cats of any age.

This 'feel-good' bill is in honor of Haley Hilderbrand from Altamont, who was killed in Kansas in August 2005 by a Siberian tiger while voluntarily posing for a picture in an USDA licensed facility.

While Haley's untimely death is very unfortunate, this bill would have done nothing to prevent this accident since what happened in Haley's case was a clear violation of federal USDA rules we had in effect already.

It is a violation of federal regulations to exhibit any tiger, lion, cougar, cheetah, leopard, or jaguar over the age of 16 weeks to the public without proper caging or barriers.  Federal regulations also prohibit public contact with these animals, even when restrained. Since such activity is regulated under the Animal Welfare Act, this agency is required to investigate any incidents or complaints resulting from the activity of any USDA licensee.

Tiger that killed Haley was a full grown animal and the exhibitor clearly broke the existing rules that would have prevented this tragedy.

Never mind the facts that only 16 people were fatally mauled  by captive wild cats between 1990 and 2006. That is one death per year. Most deaths and attacks were on handlers and owners, whom have accepted and know extremely well the risk.

None of the deaths were the result of the exotic cats running loose. All happened to people voluntarily on the property where the animals were kept, be it owners, handlers, employees, friends, or visitors wanting to see the animals.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 53,500 children from ages 0-19  died in 2003, many in activities that involve toys, pools, cars, bicycles, boating, sports, but there is no federal legislation restricting the public from them.  Why not, isn't their life and death sensationalized or important enough to name a bill after them?

The latest federal rule from USDA prohibits declawing and defanging of bears, primates and big cats. Animals are considered property under US legal system, so the issue, once again, is not whether you as a citizen agree or disagree with these procedures, the issue is whether the government should have a right to tell us what to do with our private property, and my answer is NO.

Nobody is forcing animal owners do declaw or defang their animals, and to this day I haven't seen a scientific study that would prove it is harmful when done correctly. According to AVMA, American Veterinary Medical Association, there is no scientific evidence that declawing of domestic cats leads to behavioral abnormalities when the behavior of declawed cats is compared with that of cats in control groups.

On the other hand, many communities, in lieu of lower licensing fees, recommend spaying and neutering, which  has been proven to have long term effects. Other than obvious short term problems associated with these reproductive surgeries such as infections, bad scarring or bad reaction to anesthesia (on rare occasions even leading to death), bleeding, stitches breaking or pulling out, after removing the reproductive organs, some animals will have long term health effects associated with the hormonal changes, occurring years after an animal has been spayed. These may include weight gain, urinary incontinence, or decreased stamina.

Maybe it is time to declaw and defang our government which keeps sticking their claws and sinking their teeth too deep into our flesh without regard for personal freedoms and choices.

Rather than keep adding more stupid laws, maybe our government should go in opposite direction, go through the books and remove many of the bad laws that passed years ago to restore normalcy and freedoms in what used to be a wonderful free country.

I didn't change, I still love freedom and big exotic cats, but the right to enjoy them seems to be in short supply lately.