I was trying to pay a parking ticket today and stumbled upon Gaithersburg city’s FAQ page. Below was a portion that made no sense to me-

Are pets required to have City licenses?

The licensing of animals is administered by the City of Gaithersburg’s Animal Control Office at City Hall. All cats and dogs older than four months of age must be vaccinated against rabies and licensed with the City. Discount fees are available to senior citizens and recipients of public assistance. Questions can be mailed to neighborhoods@gaithersburgmd.gov or call 301-258-6343.

Call me crazy but I feel like all to often in the world people have pets that not only cant afford them but don’t know how to take care of them.  Now the rule by the city saying that all cats and dogs older than four months must be vaccinated makes perfect sense to me.  The problem I have is why would the city assist someone on PUBLIC ASSISTANCE with taking care of a pet.  If they cant take care of them self and need public assistance, what makes the city think they should be taking care of a pet?  The city giving them a financial break to have a pet only leads to two things.  Our tax money being wasted and Animals being raised by people who cant take care of themselves.

Now just because someone is poor does not mean they cant raise a pet.  However, sometimes I think that maybe the money being spent on the pet should be spent on the rent.  Rather then raising a dog maybe they should be figuring out ways to get off of public assistance.

Not to drag this on any longer but I remember seeing the MTV show True Life recently.  This one was True life we are poor.  They followed poor family’s who were having financial troubles .  Some of these families were receiving food stamps and other government help.  What I don’t understand is WHY THESE FAMILIES HAD PETS TO BEGIN WITH!

Gaithersburg is located just outside Washignton, DC in Maryland