COMMENTARY | Ohio State Sen. Troy Balderson plans to introduce legislation so excessive and unnecessary, it would make a Democrat blush.
According to an internal memo leaked Saturday, Balderson is requesting co-sponsors to a bill he plans to propose which would turn law-abiding animal owners into criminals. The bill "would immediately ban individuals" from ownership of many animals and reptiles which are legally and responsibly owned by thousands of Ohioans.
Balderson advised in the memo that USDA licensing only applies to breeders of non-native species of traditionally wild animals, but is not mandatory for private owners who do not intend to breed their animals. Further, he wrote, "In recognizing this dangerous hole in our regulatory system, it is absolutely imperative that we develop legislation that would carefully regulate the ownership of these animals."
To the sensible reader of this politically manufactured problem, the answer would be to require licensing for all owners, which would be an overreaching extension of governmental authority, in and of itself. Balderson, it seems, is not sensible. Balderson chose a radical, unnecessary solution.
The bill is in response to the acts of one emotionally disturbed man, who released his animals before shooting himself in the head in October.
An all-out ban on animal ownership due to a single incident perpetrated by a single idiot is no less radical than the kooks that would ban legal gun ownership for all because of a few illegal owners. This is nothing short of imposing punishment on law abiding citizens to stop those who do not abide by the law.
This bill would be the Senate version of House Bill 352, proposed by Democrat Rep. Debbie Phillips.
The ban would include constricting snakes such as boas and pythons. The most alarming part of the legislation is the open-ended definition of exotic animals to be banned, to include; "Any other animal designated by the chief [of the division of wildlife] in rules adopted under this section."
Undoubtedly, animal activists would work tirelessly to get one of their own into the chief position to take advantage of this blanket of power to ban any animal ownership. As the Obama administration has shown, once the radical left gets into a position of power, they will do anything and everything to expand that power. Soon you might not be allowed to own a dog in Ohio if this law passes.
Balderson is but another example of what is wrong with the Republican Party. RINOs like Balderson legislating from the left are the reason voters believe that there is no difference between the parties. This is a thumb in the eye of the Republican values of smaller government and less extraneous regulation and is precisely the reason the tea party movement caught fire two years ago.
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