Many city council members quickly grow to dislike dealing with animals.

Try to increase the dog tag fees? Leash cats? Approve a bylaw that would limit the number of cats in one little old lady's home? (She is always the one who has curly white hair, walks with a cane, and has smiley dimples that the TV cameras show). Get regulations put together on a city-run animal shelter? A policy on euthanizing strays? Permission for a traveling circus that features animal acts? Approving a business license for a reptile store in a shopping centre? Increase the fines for pet owners who disobey civic bylaws? Create a new dog-leash park in an established neighbourhood?

Well, good luck. Any issue dealing with pets or animals is guaranteed to bring out passionate, fervent believers in some side of those issues. And they tend to be loud, opinionated, certain of the rightness of their belief, and unwilling to consider other options that may be proposed by the poor, beleaguered council members.

Pets are an important member of many families. Terrific. I like dogs a lot, can tolerate most cats, want nothing to do with snakes, and admire birds. I have always wanted a dog, but because of my lifestyle and career (many late nights and much travel) I never felt it would be fair to the animal. For many years, however, I was a doting uncle to the beagle next door.

A recent analysis by Economist magazine opines that there are more dogs than children under eighteen in cities such as Phoenix, Detroit, and Dallas. (I could find no such research for Canada).

Canadians have an estimated twenty-eight million pets, about eight million of which are dogs. Nearly two-thirds of Quebec homes have a pet, the most in Canada. Pet owners certainly consider their pet to be a member of the family. There is a cost to owning a pet—the average dog owner spends about $5,000 a year.

All these facts combine to make a dangerous quagmire for local government officials who must deal with various pet bylaws and animal control regulations. Public meetings tend to run long, late, and emotional.

A few owners, of course, flip over to the far side. The abuse of 'companion animals' for travel on airlines reached the crazy stage a couple of years ago—pet snakes; didn't somebody try to bring an emotional support turkey on board? A pig. A monkey. Airlines finally cracked down hard—and should. Good for them.

Politicians learn quickly that there are certain things you just do not do in public life—judge a baby contest, for example. Interfering too much with family pets is another one. Yes, there must be some firm regulations, but go too far and the public will rise up. It is a narrow line between getting doggie kisses and doggie bites.