The previous government approved a law that makes it an offense to tie a dog to a chain or rope.
I am personally against such legislation and I have many strong arguments for it.
A particular hypocrisy of the legislators remains that animal abuse is probably not a criminal offense in Slovakia, as in the last EU country, but tying up dogs is.
I'll start a bit broadly. I am also for animal protection. But nothing should go to extremes. Lately, we have been hearing from falsely liberal politicians that an animal should have more rights than a human. And that is an unhealthy type of extremism.
Some politicians from the previous government boasted with great pride about how they were going to protect animals, speaking of a wonderful higher ideal.
But what is the reality? It is a discriminatory restriction of rural residents, while any restrictions would be desirable especially for urban residents, where dogs have much worse conditions in apartments.
I personally have never had a domestic dog, but all the people I know only had a tied-up dog for part of the day, not the whole day.
Other people I know had a dog tied to a light, thin, long chain, which allowed the dog to move over a larger area than in a one-room apartment.
I also saw a special sliding mechanism, a sliding cable, to which the dog was tied, which allowed the dog to move in an area about 15 times larger than in an apartment.
Lawmakers and animal protection activists forgot to restrict city dwellers as well. Why didn't they include in the same amendment to the law that it is also an offense if someone doesn't walk their dog at least once every 24 hours?
One's mind boggles at the irrationality and madness of politicians. It is imperative to drastically change the entire electoral system. Politics must not be dictated solely by Bratislava, while the voice of the countryside remains in the background. A multi-constituency electoral system is welcome. There is no need to fear a multi-constituency electoral system, which some media outlets are using to scare people by saying it will only benefit large parties. The solution for smaller parties is to form coalitions, a kind of merger of several parties.
By the way, it is currently reported that up to 66% of MPs are from Bratislava, which is not good.
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I don't agree with everything Huliak says here, as I'm not a big fan of alternative media, but he's right about most things.
And personally, I also disagree with making it an offense to have a dog on a chain. There are one-sided restrictions only for people from the countryside, but the fact that some person from the city doesn't walk their dog for a whole week, keeping it trapped in a one-room apartment, is okay.
Animals should not have greater rights than humans.