GOVERNMENTS, PETTY RULES & PETTY AUTHORITY

Luisa D'Amato has an interesting Opinion piece in today's Waterloo Region Record titled "Wildlife rules create a feeding frenzy for petty officials". Luisa is discussing a couple of recent silly decisions by Kitchener Council. The first was in regards to dancing at a music festival and the second is in regards to feeding wildlife on your own property. Well indeed. Apparently bird feeders are still allowed provided you follow the rules as deemed appropriate by the wildlife nazis. Feeding neighbourhood stray cats is an altogether different matter.

As Luisa points out this municipal legislation is way out of place. We do not have a bear problem as in northern Ontario whereby leaving food out could be considered threatening to the neighbours. Similarily leaving a small pet tied up in an open backyard next to a ravine might be inviting a coyote to put tiny dog on his menu. One could argue that that was a form of feeding the wildlife. Perhaps Luisa's larger point is that human beings just love to get some authority and then go nuts with it. Just look at our school boards and politicians at all levels. Nanny state indeed or worse.