Lifestyle on a leash

Well, it's fuzzy critter day on the blog.

Louisville, Kentucky, has a new law intended to penalize people who don't have their pets spayed or neutered -- that's all pets, not just dogs and cats.

Norman Auspitz, the owner of the Kentucky Colonels Cat Club, said he joined as a plaintiff because the ordinance is "anti-pet."

"It's a bizarre thing," Auspitz said. "The law talks about unaltered animals, be they dogs, be they cats, be they rabbits."

The law apparently started off specifically targeted at "pit bulls" and rottweilers, but in reaction to public criticism of a breed-specific ban, it was widened to apply to just about any animal you can imagine -- and to their owners. More than just requiring that animals be altered, it hikes licensing fees and even dictates how animals are kept and how they're restrained.

Jon Fleischaker, attorney for the 12 organizations and individuals suing the city, said his clients believe the ordinance violates the federal and state constitutions. The suit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court, claims that the ordinance isn't even a "dog law."

"It is a law that restricts the freedoms of people," the suit says.

"The law allows unfettered discretion by city officials in dealing with the property of people, without standards and without guidelines," Fleischaker said. "This is an effort by city officials to dictate how people deal with their pets, when their pets aren't bothering anyone."

I'm not entirely sure what's up with the flurry of anti-dog and anti-pet laws that have appeared in the news recently. To a certain extent, some of these laws are reaction to isolated incidents of dogs attacking people or other animals. To that extent they're a revival of the "pit-bull"-fever that fueled some remarkable stupid breed-specific legislation of the 1980s. But some of these law, like the Louisville law and the attempted greyhound racing ban in New Hampshire, seem targeted more at the way people interact with their animals than at specific types of animals.

My guess is that these laws are less about animals than they are about legislating lifestyle. If I'm right, the Louisville law has less in common with the old pit-bull bans than it does with San Francisco outlawing plastic bags. It's a way for people of a shared mindset to say: "Here we are, and we're in charge!" The ability to bludgeon "others" into submission with the power of the law then becomes an expression of cultural solidarity.

Think of it as the totalitarian underbelly of democracy. The majority rules -- and it wants you to clean up after your neutered, leashed pooch with a biodegradable bag. Or else.