Maybe if the underground economy wasn't so busy, the government would collect enough taxes to pay off the national debt.
Is it so well hidden? Absolutely not. Just do a Google search for "puppies for sale" or "parrots for sale." Phone these people - they will gladly provide an address if you want to exchange money for a living creature.
Breed a pit bull twice a year - she will provide 20 puppies at a price of $1,000 each. No receipt and no tax, and explained away as a hobby, but it is an income.
Hobby or not, $20,000 a year is taxable income. Parrots sell for between $1,500 and $10,000 each, dependent upon the species. It doesn't take many sales to add up to a sizeable income - taxfree.
Due to these incentives, the pet industry has become an overwhelming success.
Puppy mills, parrot mills and thousands of backyard breeders constitute a thriving underground industry.
The downside is the suffering of the animals and birds involved. That is easily covered, though, since there are so many organizations willing to take on the responsibility of caring for these unwanted, at their own financial and emotional cost.
The ever-growing elephant in the room is the fact that there are more creatures being bred than there are homes to care for them. This problem will have to be solved sooner or later. It is doubtful that those making a living breeding and selling baby animals will choose to stop being the root cause.
You would think that paying for a pet would encourage people to keep them for life. This is the plan at the time of purchase. Unfortunately, for unforeseeable reasons, human lives continually change. Whether it is an Easter bunny, a free kitten, a $1,000 puppy or a $10,000 parrot, huge numbers of them end up on the pet-go-around, with a rescue organization or released for nature to be the caregiver. There are always more available for purchase when life gets back on an even keel.
The cost of a previously owned pet forced to be self-sustaining is suddenly a financial burden to be borne by all taxpayers, not just the irresponsible ones who abandon their pets. Municipalities are bombarded with phone calls regarding feral cat colonies, ever-growing numbers of rabbits tunneling through golf courses and parks.
Currently, citizens seem to live in fear of deer reshaping their prized imported shrubs. Usually, the local municipal management decides to cull or murder these unwanted animals to quickly solve its problems.
This, of course, is paid for with taxpayer dollars, about $350 for each deer killed recently in Cranbrook, for example. A garden fence would be so much more effective, since other deer will breed and fill the empty space and the problem will remain.
When the University of Victoria had the colony of dumped pet rabbits, the annual financial burden for running repairs was astronomical. Wild bird populations suffer greatly when humans move on and leave their dearly loved unneutered cat to fend for itself.
SPCA shelters have reduced the numbers of animals euthanized in their shelters. This seems to be directly tied to the number of rescue centres opening their doors to elderly animals, especially those who need medical attention.
There is an easy solution to controlling the breeding and selling of living beings. With modern technology, this can be effected in a short time. The cost of the program will be paid for with the taxes collected from breeders currently evading such an overhead.
Controlling the number and species available for sale will be simple, provided the method becomes law. Animal shelters and euthanasia for convenience would no longer be a municipal requirement.
If the government doesn't care about the horrors suffered by unwanted animals, maybe they will care about the money they could be getting.
Wendy Huntbatch is owner of the World Parrot Refuge in Coombs.
