Dogs And Cats Are People Too

Let us admit the unthinkable: our Mayor is slipping.

If you had the chance to look at the video on the CIBPA meeting you will know what I mean.

You remember the scare tactics about the area of mass destruction that Sam talked about around the DRIC Road that would be solved with Greenlink. People’s homes would be in the pollution zone beside the Road that would cause all kinds of misery and hardship. That really didn’t do very much because no one got scared.

Then, and this is still being carried on even at CIBPA, there were these scare stories about kids wearing backpacks in order to breathe, brain cancer, heart attacks, asthma and almost every illness known to mankind caused by pollution, most of it from United States but why deal with facts. To be honest, that hasn’t accomplished too much either because no one got scared.

Eddie missed out on the one issue that would terrify every member of this community single, married, divorced or separated, with kids or without and no matter what age group. Can you guess what that is? Of course you can. Think hard. Which member of the Community has not yet been targeted by City Hall: Pets!

That is right. Pets, dogs and cats... Why hasn’t anyone spoken about them? Why hasn’t anyone stood up for our four-footed friends? Is it because they don’t have a voice other than a bark and a meow?

Dogs and cats are people too aren’t they!

They breathe in the same air that we do. I’m sure that there has to be some negative impact to their health. I do not believe that I have seen a DRIC report dealing with this subject. They won’t even do a report on Bovine flatulence when that is a real problem.

I have this terrific idea for our Mayor that he should capitalize on. He will get the support of every pet owner in the City beyond a doubt. It will not cost too much money to achieve and even if it does, who cares since we are dealing with Man’s Best Friend. It would not surprise me to see that the City could get a grant as well from the Province to deal with feral cats as well and probably rats too.

I can just see Eddie at a Town hall meeting warning people about the problem of pet pollution and contamination and handing out the solution.

I just hope that there is no conflict of interest with this fellow in the news story being a Relative of our Mayor given the family name. If there is, I would be prepared to consent to a waiver of the rules so that our Mayor could get all the credit. Just read the following news story:

• "Pet oxygen masks to the rescue
  DONATION: Fire department gets pet-saving device
  
  Orillia's pet population can breathe easier thanks to the latest addition to the Orillia Fire Department.
  
  Yesterday, the department received a donation of two animal oxygen mask kits, one for each station.
  
  Each kit comes with three masks sized to fit cats or small dogs, mid-sized and large dogs.
  
  "We always encounter pulling out pets with smoke inhalation," said deputy chief Jeff Kirk. "All we have to put on them are the regular or peds (pediatric) masks."
  
  Those masks, designed to fit human faces, don't provide a 100% seal to deliver the pure oxygen needed to clear the smoke and carbon monoxide the animals have inhaled.
  
  Guy Francis, owner of Invisible Fence Brand of Muskoka, said donating the oxygen masks is part of a company initiative.
  
  "Basically what we do for a living is keeping pets safe at home," said Francis yesterday. "This goes hand in hand..."
  
  Kirk said figures show that in North America more than 40,000 pets die in fires each year, most due to smoke inhalation.
  
  The death of a pet is something firefighters want to avoid if possible.
  
  "Pets today are part of the family," he said. "It's nice to see a company out there donating these things."
  
  Items like the animal oxygen kits aren't something that would normally be covered by the department's budget.
  
  Kirk said it won't be long until the kits join the rest of the equipment that goes to the scene of fires.
  
  "We'll have a small training session before they go on the trucks but it will be as soon as possible after all four crews are exposed to the devices."