A disclaimer, my family had a family member like this one except he was beige.
Debt collector seizes prized pug, sells it
BY CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE
New York Times
New York Times
MIKKO SCHIMMELFEDER AP
Edda the highly prized pug poses Wednesday in Duesseldorf, Germany. City officials in Ahlen, Germany, are defending their decision to seize Edda and sell the pet on eBay, saying authorities were unable to find anything else to take from an indebted family.
BERLIN
When a debt collector came calling on a family in a northwestern German town about unpaid bills, the official was looking to seize the family’s most valuable asset.
The collector considered other items but settled on a prized female pug named Edda and seized the dog – which the city then sold on eBay for 750 euros.
The city spokesman called it “a pragmatic solution” to an outstanding debt.
But the case has prompted outrage from animal welfare activists and others in the city of Ahlen, population 57,000, and raised questions about the cruelty of the seizure, prompting debate about whether any German laws had been broken.
“I didn’t know what was more outrageous, the fact that they seized the dog, or the fact that they put it on eBay,” said Birgitt Thiesmann, an activist at Vier Pfoten, a German animal protection charity.
The unidentified family of five – including three young children – had fallen behind on their bills. The husband was left a paraplegic after a work-related injury, according to local news reports. The family owed the city dog taxes, which are levied by cities and communities across Germany, among their other debts to the city. In Ahlen, the tax for having one dog is nearly $90 a year.
“In general, it’s illegal to seize pets for payment,” said Nicoline Schuleit, a lawyer who specializes in animals in the neighboring town of Bielefeld. But she noted that exceptions can be made for particularly valuable pets.
The city insisted that the confiscation and subsequent sale of the animal were legal and justified the decision to seize the dog as an asset. Officials said the price of the pug – set at 750 euros (roughly $850) or best offer on eBay, which some called a steal – met the legal test of whether the pug was valuable.
“The employee tried to find a pragmatic solution within the scope of his discretion and decided on the course of action now in question,” said Frank Merschhaus, a spokesman for the city of Ahlen.
10 comments:
The Germans...violating human and personal rights since 1933...and every fifty years or so they march off like automatons on some insane goal of world conquest.
What about the violation of the rights of those to whom the debts were owed? Are they just supposed to write the debts off?
Requiring payments of debts isn't a step toward world conquest.
But my, my, taking a family member away and selling him for payment on that delinquent debt seems to me to be cruel and inhuman punishment and against the laws of God!
A dog is not a family member. It is a pet.
When you think of your dog, cat, iguana, gerbil, llama, or gold fish as a member of your family, think of what you are saying to the real family members.
The guy is a paraplegic and can’t get $90 fee sorted out? Good thing he had a dog or his wife would be working in a mine.
I am saying to them all be like our pets and you'd be a lot better off and more loved!
Bee here:
An animal is a piece of property under the law. Only we modern idiots act like our attachment to them makes them more than property. If we loved our trees, it would seem like an abomination to cut one down and remove it. If we loved our car, it would hurt our heart beyond comprehension to have to give it up and for it to go into the crusher.
I love animals. I would have 100 cats if it were practical. I would have 50 dogs if I could house and feed and exercise them and take care of them. I can't even watch some of those nature shows that film a lion taking down a wildebeest or antelope. I can't watch a film of an eagle swooping down on a rabbit and carrying it away. It makes my heart sick to think of the fear and suffering of that poor creature.
But my cat and dog are pets, property, and not my family. They are my beautiful God given companions who bring me much comfort and joy. I thank God for them. I am grateful for God's gift to me of their lives, of the miracle of their existence, of the beauty they reflect of His creation. There are times when my thoughts go to praise of them when they are sleeping peacefully nearby. When one dies I weep and am heartbroken.
But they are property. If the debt collector took a flock of sheep or herd of cows and sold it, there would not be such an outcry. It's a mistake to elevate a soulless creature to the status of "family." We need to stop acting like simpletons.
God bless.
Bee
Bee, when I had a cat as a priest in the 90's, I'll call him my pet rather than the son he was to me, but I digress, when any animal appeared on TV, he would stop what he was doing and go and watch it, especially nature shows and lions attacking wildebeest and the like.
And I am not lying, his favorite movie was Otis and Milo, which oddly enough featured a pug too. He would watch it from start to finish!
Bee here:
Fr. McD, your cat story made me laugh out loud! I believe you. I had a cat once that came running over to me one day with a panicked look on his face, then ran to the basement door, stopped and looked at me, then came back over to me, jumped up on me, front paws on my chest, and looked at me right in the eye with a panicked wide-eyed look, then ran back to the basement door, and stopped and stared at me. Duh. Dumb human figured out something must be going on in the basement. When I went downstairs the water heater had burst and water was running all over the basement floor. Not so dumb animal.
I get it, Father. I love 'em too. I think they have great personalities and some are very intelligent and almost all, cats and dogs alike, are very protective and devoted to us. I'd be crushed if someone took one of my pets away to pay off my debt. But to say it's my "family," well, I think some people go too far saying that. There needs to be some balance and perspective.
God bless.
Bee
Bee,
I love your eloquent and touching second and third paragraphs in your post at 4:00 p.m. However, what you write seems somewhat in tension with the assertion that animals are “just property.” Also, I am not convinced that “only we modern idiots act like our attachment to [animals] makes them more than property.” Check out the mysterious phenomenon of animal trials practiced by various societies throughout history, especially medieval Catholic Europe.
Doesn’t a developed “sensibility” towards animals, and the natural world more generally, arguably afford a possible opening helping to combat secular arguments that discount the value of the developing human being within the womb? After all, it seems rather inconsistent to love and defend the natural world against human aggressive encroachment while at the same time championing, or at least permitting, aggression against the unborn. Indeed, might not this be part of Pope Francis’ strategy in Laudato Si?
Post a Comment