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| "Hands off DC" protest Photo by Ted Eytan (Creative Commons) |
We were asked to pass
along this breaking news from DC citizens working to preserve DC’s laws from
Congressional meddling:
The Congressional
Committee in charge of DC is quietly moving to overturn DC’s “poop scoop” law.
Rep. Chaffetz calls it a case of “correction of local government overreach into
the private lives of pets.”
Late tonight we
learned that Rep. Jason Chaffetz, in his capacity as chairman of the
Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has taken steps
toward overturning one of DC’s clean environment laws – DC poop-scoop law
(900.7 and 900.8 in the DC Code), on the grounds that “the DC government has no
right to intervene in the normal way that privately-owned pets can relieve
themselves, following their own God-given nature.”
In a bill titled “The
Canine Freedom to Eliminate” Act, a dog owner in the District of Columbia
“cannot be compelled to serve as a toilet attendant to an animal.” While Rep.
Chaffetz declined to answer any questions about the bill, his chief legislative
aide, Braun T. Urhd, commented, “It’s typical of the ‘nanny state’ mentality of
DC government to try to make people pick up after someone else. We don’t want
this type of government mandate. It is within Congress’ purview to set it
right, and that’s just what we intend to do.”
As if anticipating the
objections from environmentalists concerned with hazards from dog feces left on
streets and yards, Mr. Urhd pointed to a soil-analysis website showing
that within six weeks, normal rainfall, wind, and other natural phenomena will
naturally degrade and break down and/or wash away the typical amount of waste a
dog would leave behind in a single incident. The DC government’s regulations
are therefore unnecessary, according to this analysis. A domain search shows
that the website is maintained by a research organization with funding from
climate-change-denying industrial interests.
The website on the
natural decay of dog waste is at this link:
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- Peggy Robin and the Cleveland Park Listserv Moderators
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