No more Wal-Mart Kittens, please

In our editorial today, we looked positively on ordinances that will prohibit the selling, giving away or bartering of animals on public space.

In the 1989 Michael Moore documentary “Roger & Me,” a woman sells her rabbits for “pets or meat.” She shows Moore how she clubs to death the cuddly bunnies, unless a person buys them to keep as pets. Moore focuses on the pets-or-meat woman to tell the story of desperation in Flint, Mich., a community impoverished by the auto industry’s ups and downs.

The people who stand in retail store parking lots and on street corners selling puppies and giving away kittens tell a story, too, about Spokane. It’s a story that animal advocates hope is changing with enactment of an ordinance making it illegal to sell, give or barter away animals in public spaces anywhere in Spokane County.

So a question: Have you ever purchased a puppy or kitten in front of a grocery store or another public-like space? And how did the pet work out for you?

Blog lines are open.

(Brian Plonka photo/The Spokesman-Review)