(PCM) Having solved all other problems, the state of New Jersey now wants to ban pets from being both tattooed and pierced. Somehow, we just never saw this as being such a big issue…we ask you…how many people do you know that have tattooed or pierced their pet?
Currently, three New Jersey lawmakers feel that it is a big problem and have introduced a bill that would clarify under New Jersey law that tattooing and/or piercing your pet would be considered an act of animal cruelty.
They feel that tattooing or piercing an animal is needless mutilation and those individuals need to be penalized for their actions. The lawmakers claim that the need for a bill was brought to their attention by animal rights groups and a similar bill is on its’ way to being passed through New York legislature now.
Both the New Jersey and the New York bills do take into the consideration the branding, tagging and marking that sometimes occurs with various livestock and exemptions will be made for those particular cases.
Residents in New Jersey are a bit baffled by the bill as to their knowledge there have been no publicly documented cases of animal tattoos or piercings taking place in the state. The only well documented cases were that of a Pennsylvania woman who was selling “gothic kittens” that had pierced ears and New York tattoo artist that tattooed his dog while the dog was unconscious due to another surgical procedure.
Back in March, the ASPCA said that it would condone the use of small tattoos on dogs or cats to mark them as having been spayed or neutered and the currently bill does not offer an exception for those types of tattoos.