Don’t vote for Phil Jennerjahn who is running for City Council in Los Angeles
by Michael
(London, UK)
August 10th 2010: Don’t vote for this shallow thinking and morally destitute politician. Here is why. I am expressing an opinion please note.
My distaste for Phil Jennerjahn arises out of what he says in unjustifiably criticizing Paul Koretz (L.A. City Council member) for his promotion and support of legislation to ban the declawing of cats.
The criticism that Mr Jennerjahn levels at Mr Koretz is ill thought out. Anyone who wants to be a councilor and represent the people of that area must be sharp thinkers otherwise they will consistently come up with the wrong decisions which will affect thousands of people’s lives negatively.
Here is what Mr Jennerjahn has said and my reasons why his argument lacks morality, decency, intelligence and good sense.
He calls the ban a “freedom-stealing piece of city legislation”. Mr Jennerjahn says that Mr Koretz, “is trying to control the way a pet owner interacts with his/her own pet” and called this “insanity”. Mr Jennerjahn says that Mr Koretz, “is trying to protect the rights of those precious kitties!”
Mr Jennerjahn also says that a declaw ban will accomplish nothing and damage the income of veterinarians.
My thoughts and comments…
All of us wherever we are must always be aware of the rights of others and that includes other animals, of course. We cannot do as we please and all legislation manages and curbs human activity. A ban on declawing cats is no different. And if America was a bit more civilised a ban wouldn’t be needed because cat caretakers wouldn’t ask for it and vets would have the morality not to do it. The legislative ban is needed to curb unacceptable human behavior. All animals need protecting in a human society because they are vulnerable to human abuse. I would have thought that was commonsense, Mr Jennerjahn.
A ban on declawing cats is not about how the pet owner interacts with their cat but about stopping an abuse of the cat.
Banning declawing has to be a gradual process as a national ban is probably impossible to achieve in a culture where declawing is deeply ingrained.
However, a ban in a city is a very important step in the right direction. It sets a marker down for others to follow. This is what it achieves. This is a very important achievement when trying to change things that are hard to change. It begins to change the culture. And in any event a politician must set high moral goals. If an activity is morally wrong and the people won’t stop it, then legislators have a moral duty to enact law to force a change. Correct moral values must underpin a politician’s decision making process.
Declawing cats is clearly morally wrong as it is almost always done at the cat owner’s convenience and against the cat’s interests and health. It is also done in breach of the vets oath. This is a point that Mr Jennerjahn totally misses. Do you want to vote for a law maker who misses such a fundamental moral issue?
Now to the vets who declaw..They will lose income Mr Jennerjahn says. That is a very shallow bit of thinking which for me would automatically rule out a vote for Mr Jennerjahn. It also proves the point and is an open admission that vets need to consistently be in breach of their oath in declawing cats to earn the kind of income that they are familiar with.
But I don’t think that it is beyond the bounds of reason to assume that vets would be able to find alternative sources of income that would allow them to both comply with their oath to work in the interests of the cat’s health and welfare plus earn a decent living at the same time. After all, veterinarians across all of Europe do just that! Come on Mr Jennerjahn, wake up. Why don’t some US vets come to Europe and ask some questions, they might learn something including how to behave decently.
No, don’t vote for Mr Jennerjahn. You don’t want someone like him making important decisions.
See Declawing Cats for lots more…
From Don’t vote for Phil Jennerjahn who is running for City Council in Los Angeles to Homepage
