Article 10 of the Constitution specifically states that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Nowhere in the Constitution is the Federal Government given the power to decide what pets I can and cannot have, yet they’re trying to do it anyway.

Eight days after a chimpanzee kept as a pet attacked and critically injured a Connecticut woman, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 80, introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to stop interstate commerce in primates as pets. The bill passed by a vote of 323 to 95. The bill now moves for consideration to the U.S. Senate, where the effort to pass the legislation is being led by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La.

This whole bill is nothing more than a Humane Society lobbying action. I thought that apes merely our ancestors? Doesn’t the government try to convince us that we evolved from monkeys? So what’s wrong with owning them?

I don’t know for sure, but I’m quite convinced that the chimpanzee that committed this atrocity isn’t the ONLY chimpanzee being kept as a pet in the United States. Yet ONE incident of this nature is forcing our already out of control Congress to dip further into our freedoms and create laws that regulate what animals I can and cannot have.

The fact is that the federal government is not authorized to make this determination. If Connecticut wants to pass a state law banning chimps, that’s their prerogative to do. If New York, how has two chimpanzees for senators, wants to allow it they should have that power. They DO have that power.

This bill is on its way to the Senate for passage. I urge you to call your Senator to vote against this bill. Not because you agree or disagree with chimpanzees being kept as pets, but because the federal government is stepping all over states’ rights with this legislation.

Posted on February 24th, 2009 by CJ
Filed under: Congressional branch, Military Strategy, Poll, Uncategorized